Youkou Shikon and Aijin Yaiba
by darkestdepths90
Summary: After draging Sasuke back, Naruto finds a new training partner and with her sets out to find a weapon with which he can defeat Orochimaru. Don't own Naruto
1. Chapter 1

A three-year-old Naruto Uzumaki sat alone on a swing in front of the ninja academy with tears falling on to his cheeks. He stared at the ground. 'Why? Why do they all treat me so badly?' A shadow appeared on the ground in front of him, and he started to cry harder. 'Why won't they leave me alone?'

The shadow stopped and without looking up, all he saw of the person was their feet. "You okay?"

He looked up and his eyes met the green eyes of the blonde girl. "Yeah."

He forced a smile and knew she wouldn't buy it. "Then why are you crying?"

"Some of the other kids were bullying me, but their gone now. "

Her eyes turned purple. "Those meanies, do you want me to kick their butts?"

He shook his head. "I don't want you to get in trouble because of me." He met her eyes again. "Your eyes are really pretty." The color changed back.

She blushed slightly, but it left quickly. "I'm Ino Yamanaka, what's your name?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you Ino."

"It's nice to meet you too Naruto."

"Ino! It's time to go!"

She turned around to see her mom walking over to her. "That's my mommy, I gotta go. I hope I see you again." She turns back to find the swing empty, the only evidence he was even there was that it was moving slightly. "Where'd he go?"

She left, holding her mother's hand as Naruto hid in the tree, watching her go. "I hope I see you again too Ino."

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Naruto's eyes slowly open and he yawns before looking at his alarm clock. "Seven-thirty five. Why the hell am I up so early? And what was up with that dream?"

'KIT, THAT WASN'T JUST A DREAM, IT WAS A MEMORY. ONE YOU SEEMED TO HAVE FORGOTEN.'

'Why would I remember all of sudden?'

'IT COULD HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR RUN IN WITH HER YESTERDAY.' 

"Oh yeah, I said I'd help her train today. I'm actually really excited about it. Things seem to be going my way a lot lately. Hopefully, my luck isn't like Baa-san, if it is, that means something bad is going to happen soon." 'What was up with her eyes though?'

'I'M DON'T KNOW KIT. IT COULD BE A BLOOD LIMIT.' 

'Maybe.'

_The day before:_

After two years of trying, Naruto finally brought him back. He walked into the village, Sasuke's unconscious body flung over his shoulder, with a smile for ear to ear. When he had gotten through the gate, Sakura was waiting for him. "Naruto, you really did it, you brought him back!"

"He'll be all yours now Sakura, but first, I gotta take him to Baa-san." Sakura followed silently behind him as he made his way to the Hokage's office, unaware of the vicious glares given to him by almost everyone he passed.

When he reached Tsunade's office, he turned to Sakura. "I need to speak with her alone."

She was disappointed, but nodded and sat in a nearby chair. He knocked on the door and heard an "Enter." From inside before going in. Not even looking up Tsunade addressed him. "Naruto, to what do I owe the pleas…" She had finally looked up from her paperwork. "So that's why, you brought him back. Is he alive?"

"Of course Baa-san, but he's going to need medical attention. I had to do quite a number on him."

"Does Sakura know yet?"

"Yeah, she's outside."

"Good, then there's no need to send for her. I'll send her and some ANBU to the hospital, while you give a full report. Would you go get her please?"

"Alright, but be sure to send at least five ANBU and Kakashi if he's not on a mission." She nods.

Naruto steps out of the office as Shizune is coming down the corridor. "Hey Shizune."

She sees the blonde boy waving and waves back. " Hi Naruto."

"Could you find Kakashi and tell him to make a team of five other ANBU and come here. If he acts lazy about it, tell him that Sasuke and I are back. That ought to get him moving. You should check the Memorial Stone first. I've seen him go there quite often." She looked at him suspiciously. "I wanted to know why he was always late."

Flashback:

_He had been visiting the Hokage and when he got outside, he noticed Kakashi, who's sliver hair made him stand out, moving through the crowd. 'Where's he going?' A mischievous smile spread a crossed his face. 'I think I'll follow him, Ero-sennin would do anything to hear about it if Kakashi's got a girlfriend.'_

_He took off after Kakashi, keep some distance between them and using henge every now and then so, he hoped, Kakashi wouldn't notice someone was following him. 'It looks like he's going to the memorial site. If he does got a girlfriend, they have a weird place of meeting.' Kakashi stopped in front of the stone. Naruto had fallen back a ways further, so he could release the henge without too much notice. _

_As he walked up to him, it seemed that Kakashi didn't even notice. "Why have you been following me Naruto?"_

_Naruto's jaw dropped. "How did you know? I changed my appearance a couple times and I stayed back a ways."_

"_I'm a jonin, and I know your chakra signature. After all, you were on my genin team, even if it was only for a short time. So, I answered your question, how about you answer mine."_

_He starched the back of his head and looked sheepish. "I saw you and I figured you had a girlfriend."_

_He sighed. "If only that were true. No, I came here for a different reason."_

"_Really, what?"_

"_I came to pay my respect to a former teammate and friend of mine, from back when I was trained by Yondaime. His name has been engraved on this stone. He changed my opinion of teamwork and told me the speech I gave the three of you, you know the one."_

"_How could I forget, it was the first bit of advice you gave us. 'In the world of the ninja, those who violate rules and laws are called trash. However… those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash.'"_

"_I'm surprised you memorized it word for word Naruto."_

"_Give me some credit, I absorb the things I think are important like a sponge."_

_Kakashi smiled under his mask. "This particular teammate, whose name was Obito, saved my life twice, and gave his own to protect me. My team was similar to the one you were on. The biggest similarity is that the crushes going on within our teams. Obito liked Rin, the girl on our team, who turned him down every time he asked. She liked me, but I didn't care at all." _

"_It's just like how our team use to be." He had a sour look on his face._

"_I come here everyday that I'm in the village."_

"_So this is the reason why you're always late."_

"_Yes it is. I don't come here only because he saved my life, but also because he gave me a final gift before he died." He turned away from the stone and waved to Naruto as he walked away. _

_Naruto went up to the stone and his jaw fell again as he stared at the name of the only Obito on it: Obito Uchiha. He turned to watch Kakashi leave and smiled before paying his own respects and leaving. _

End:

"Alright, I'll be right back." As Shizune runs towards the door, Naruto turns to Sakura.

"If you wanted to know so bad, you could have just asked him."

"You know he would have either lied or have done something to avoid the question. Anyway, Baa-san has a job for you. Follow me, she explain while we wait for Kakashi." She stood up and followed him back into the office.

"Sakura, I want you to go with the ANBU to the hospital and treat Sasuke. After that's done, I want you to stay and keep an eye on him. Don't let him leave the room, understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Sakura wasn't able to contain her glee and was all but jumping up and down.

It was then that Kakashi made his presence known. "Nicely done Naruto, you're probably the only one who could have done it."

"Is your team ready?"

"Yes, they're already at the hospital."

"Be sure to restrain him when you get there so he can't do jutsu, he's going to be pissed when he wakes up." Naruto had a fox-like grin. 'Especially after what I did to him!'

Sakura ran up and hugged him. "Thank you for keeping your promise."

Naruto looked down at her, a little surprised. "Don't I always?"

"Yes you do, but still, thank you Naruto."

Kakashi picked up Sasuke and Sakura followed him out. Tsunade looked Naruto straight in the eyes. "You don't seem very happy."

He looked down. "Really?"

"HELL NO! You brought him back and got some attention from the girl you like, you should be as ecstatic as she is!"

"Used to like, I realized exactly how she feels about me. She loves that asshole and nothing will change that and I _am_ glad that I brought him back. Not only for her, but for a reason of my own." She looked at him surprised. "Where else am I going to find someone who can keep up with me?"

"That's s good point. The two of you have always seemed evenly matched. Which rises the question, how did you beat him?"

Naruto's smile returned. "I used three tails of chakra against his second level curse seal. He used it too early in the battle and grew tired quickly. In a last ditch effort; he used his corrupted Chidori, which I countered with my Rasengan. Because he was tired, mine was stronger and the resulting explosion knocked him out. I've kept him tied up the entire trip back, but I'm starting to get worried, he's been out for a few days now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm positive because I haven't slept since the fight."

"WHY THE HELL NOT?"

His smile vanished. "When I first found out I was on his team, I ambushed him and tied him up. Then I took his appearance to find out what Sakura really thought about me."

"You did what?!"

"I know it was stupid. But at the time, the only people to care about me were old man Hokage, Iruka, and the old man and Amaye from Ichiraku Ramen Bar."

"So, what does this have to do with you not sleeping?"

"Sasuke got free using a jutsu and got me back. I just didn't want a repeat of last time."

"I see. As for why he been out for so long, it's probably just his body recuperating after the stress he place on it in your fight."

"I hope so, Sakura would never forgive me if he doesn't wake up."

"Regardless, you've earned a month off, and I'm going to pay you a month's wage for an ANBU because you accomplished something that they couldn't." He smiled again and she reached into her desk drawer. She pulled out a large pouch and handed it to him. "You've earned every cent, but don't spend it all on ramen and be sure to get some rest okay." He nodded and left, but not before saying something that Tsunade would have probably knocked him through a wall for, if she had been able to catch him.

He walked with his hands behind his head and a giant smile on his face. He was met by the usual glares, but even they couldn't dampen his mood. As he passed them, he could hear them whispering to each other, but he continued on his way to a small training ground on the outskirts of the village.

When he arrived however, he found that someone else was already there.

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**Ero-sennin- I'm not sure what this means, but he's referring to Jiraiya**

Henge no Jutsu- Transformation Technique 

**Chidori- One Thousand Birds**

**Rasengan- Spiraling Sphere**


	2. Chapter 2

Ino walked down the street grumbling. "How am I supposed to get stronger if no one will help me? Asuma-sensei is always playing those old man games with Shikamaru and both Shikamaru and Choji don't take training seriously. Sakura's training under the Hokage, whose one of the Densetsu no Sannin no less, Neji and Tenten train together, Lee trains by himself or with Gai, and Hinata's team train together. I need some better techniques, but what I really need is someone to help me learn them." She sighs. "At this point, I'd even settle for Lee or Gai."

As she continued to a secluded training ground near by, she saw that everybody was really tense for some reason. 'I wonder what's going on.' She put it out of her mind when her destination came into view.

The training grounds surrounded by trees with a set of three posts were erected at two opposite ends.

"Well, at least I can do target practice." She walks over to the last post on one side and retraces the target she had craved into it using a kunai. She moves back about thirty yards and launches every weapon she was carrying at the target.

When she was done, she went to gather her weapons and check her accuracy. She wasn't surprised to find that they were all close to the middle, because this was basically all she could do on her own.

She had just pulled the last of her shuriken from the log when a rustling in the forest startled her and it was getting closer to her. She threw that very shuriken towards the noise instinctively, but didn't hear it hit anything, not even a tree and it was still coming closer.

Moving into a fighting stance she kept staring in the direction the noise was coming from. "What the hell do you want?"

"At least your aims improved, even if your personality hasn't changed at all. Not that it bothers me, I kind of glad it didn't." A blonde young man wearing orange pants that looked a bit tight and a ragged blue shirt stepped out from the tree line. "I believe that this belongs to you and you should watch where you're throw these, it almost hit me in the head. Then again, in times like these you always have to stay alert and me walking through the forest probably startled you at least a little."

Ino stared stunned at the sight before her. "Naruto? When did you get back?"

"Just a little while ago, with Sasuke in tow."

"Alive or dead?"

"Alive of course."

Her temper was getting out of control. "Why didn't you kill that damn traitor?!"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Sakura asked me to bring him back. Besides, I thought that you were one of his fangirls?"

"I was until he deserted us for the promise of power, which must have been an empty promise if you brought him back."

"So the ANBU are weaker than me, huh?"

"No, they're just lazy bastards."

"So, in a two year absence, you stopped liking the asshole?"

"Yes I did, and I don't regret it."

Naruto spoke softly, almost to the point that she couldn't hear him. "If only Sakura felt the same way as you Ino."

Her anger turned to surprise. 'After all that time away, he remembered my name? I've only talked to him a few times and it was pretty much always yelling at him for something but still he remembered my name.'

He handed her the shuriken and headed for the other set of posts. He left her standing there, lost in thought. The sounds of what he was doing snapped her out of it and she looked over at him. He was attacking the post only using his bare hands. 'Idiot.'

She tried to concentrate on her training, but couldn't help but look over at him from time to time. He wasn't slowing his pace at all and was leaving considerable impacts in the wood.

She was just about to throw a kunai when she heard a sickening cracking sound. Her eyes widen with horror. 'He must have broken his hand!' A large thud soon followed and made her turn faster.

The sight before her turned the horror she was feeling into astonishment. The post was broken if half and Naruto, who sat at the base, was rubbing his hand. Even for this distance, she could see the blood on his hands. She picked up her bag and ran over to him.

"Naruto, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine."

She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of water. "Honestly, what were you thinking only using your fist against that post?" She pulled his hands toward her.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm cleaning the wound so it doesn't get infected." As the water hits his skin, the blood washes away and she sees the cuts healing themselves before her eyes.

He saw her staring at his hand and quickly pulls it away. "Not that I'm not grateful, but it's just a few minor cuts. It'll be fine."

She wasn't really paying attention; she was trying to process what she had just seen. 'It impossible, I must have imagined it.' "Hey Naruto, would you mind helping me train?"

"Why would you want my help?"

"No one else will…"

Angry by what he heard, Naruto cut her off. "So I'm a last resort is that it?!"

"That's not it at all! I asked Kakashi for some advice and he said that if I wanted to learn ninjutsu that you and Sasuke were the ones to go to. Since Sasuke turned traitor, and you were gone I went to everyone else so I could train until you got back."

"He said Sasuke or me?" His voice was full of disbelief.

"He said that the two of you were basically even in that field."

He had calmed down considerably by now. "So I wasn't your last choice but your first?"

"Well yeah, but if it hadn't been for Sasuke becoming a traitor, I probably would have asked him first. The only reason being that I wouldn't have seen him for the asshole he is."

Her last comment made Naruto grin. "At last, some else who gets it! Alright, I help you, but it's going to have to wait till tomorrow, I need to get something to eat and some long overdue sleep." His smile got bigger. "Ino, do you like ramen?"

"More or less. Why?"

"I was rewarded handsomely for bring _him_ back and was wondering if you like to join me at Ichiraku's. Of all the places I've been, they make the best ramen."

Ino smiled. "Sounds great. Sakura always said you were nuts about ramen."

When they arrived, they found Teuchi outside, staring at the dark building. "What's going on, why aren't you open?"

"Our biggest source of income has been gone for over two years, and with the new restaurants opening up down town, we won't be able to stay open. The only way would be if he came back."

Teuchi sighs and Naruto smiled. "Then don't worry Old Man, I'm right here."

Teuchi finally turns around and rubs his eyes as if he didn't believe what he saw. "It really is you! Oh thank you, I could bare the thought of closing down!" He then realized that Naruto wasn't alone and smiled. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend kid."

"It's not like that Old Man!"

Teuchi laughs. "Whatever you say, so did you just stop to chat or to get some ramen?"

"You know me."

"Right this way, I'll make you as much as you can eat."

"You won't have anything left Teuchi."

"Iruka-sensei, you want to join us? Naruto's buying."

"Oh, hello Ino." 'I don't ever remember those two hanging out before he left, I wonder why they are now.' "If Naruto's buying, I can't pass it up, because it's usually me buying for him."

They went inside, and no sooner had they sat down than had Ayame rushed past them, heading straight for Teuchi. "Dad, you said that you were going to close early tonight!"

"That was before I found out that he was back."

He nodded toward Naruto and Ayame turned to look. "Oh!" She smiled. "It's nice to see you again Naruto."

"Hi Ayame. Sorry about making you worry about your dad, but when he said that you guys were thinking about closing, I decided to buy as much ramen as the three of us could eat."

"You're very generous, but how much can you buy on a genin's salary?"

"Not much, but for bring back Sasuke, I got paid the month's salary of an ANBU." The other four people's jaws hit the floor and he just laughed at the look on their faces.

Iruka had been right, by the time Naruto had finished eating the restaurant had no more food and on top of that, Naruto hadn't even spent a fourth of his payment.

Ino looked like she was going to be sick. 'Where does he put it all?' Her attention turned to the other occupants. 'Why don't they look surprised by this? Duh, it's because they're use to this. He probably ate here at least once everyday before he left.'

"Hey Ino," Iruka's voice had broken her train of thought. "I was just wondering, why did the two of you come here together?"

Teuchi turned his head so he could hear the answer. Naruto glared at Iruka. "What are you trying to imply?"

Iruka put his hands up. "Nothing, it just that I never seen the two of you ever hang out before, and I was curious."

Ino blushed out of embarrassment and spoke quietly. "I asked Naruto to help me train in ninjutsu."

"Ninjutsu huh. Well Ino, you couldn't have picked a better person to learn from. As far as I'm concerned, he's at the top of the list."

Naruto smiled. "Thanks Iruka-sensei."

"It's getting late, we should all head home."

"I suppose you're right Iruka-sensei. Naruto, same place at noon?"

"I'll be there." They all headed in different directions, and the two genin couldn't wait for the next day.

-------------------------------

Naruto was walking around the village at eight in the morning, which is odd for him. 'I still have four hours to kill before meeting up with Ino, what can I do? Now that I have some money again, I can buy some new clothes, these are getting to be a bit too tight. And I should probably thank Kakashi for what he told Ino, I can't remember the last time I was this excited. I think I'll go see Kakashi first.' He head off towards the hospital. 

Once he was inside, he walked up to the front desk. "Excuse me ma'am, but could you tell me where I can find Kakashi Hatake?"

Not even looking up at him she replied. "On the fifth floor at the end of the hall."

"Thank you." He ran up the stairs, but walked through the halls.

When he reached the place that the receptionist had spoken of, he didn't see Kakashi, but did see a masked ANBU standing guard outside a door. As he approached, the ANUB guard stepped in front of the door.

"Halt! State your business!"

"I'm here to see Kakashi Hatake, is he inside?"

"Yes, but I have orders that no one is allowed inside."

Naruto was really starting to get annoyed. "Could you go get him?"

"No!"

Anger had overruled his common sense. "WHY THE HELL NOT?!"

"I said no, now leave demon!"

Naruto clenched his hands into fist and was about to charge the damn ANBU when the door opened. He relaxed almost immediately when the silver haired jonin stepped out.

"What the problem out here?"

"This bastard here," he pointed at the guard. "Just broke the Sandaime's law."

Kakashi's eye came to rest on the blonde genin. "I see, then I will report him to the Hokage and he will be punished accordingly." Naruto smirked as the masked man flinched. "As for you Naruto, please follow me." He followed Kakashi through the door quietly.

After the door closed Kakashi turned to face him again. "It's not a good idea to pick fights with an ANBU member Naruto. They're in an entirely league."

"I just asked him to come get you! Besides, there no way he could beat me after the hell Ero-sennin put through during training."

"What do you want to speak with me about?" He completely ignored Naruto's last comment.

"I wanted to thank you for all the things you told Ino about me. At first though, I wasn't sure if I should take it as a compliment or an insult."

"Oh that, I meant every word. As for a thank you, you could tell me what you did to him." He nodded toward the bed in which Sasuke laid. "We couldn't find anything wrong with him medically, so we asked Neji to take a look. He said that Sasuke's inner coils were messed up far beyond what a Hyuga could do."

"It seems that you've already figured it out, so why ask me?"

"I want to know how you did it."

"Alright." Naruto sighed. "I did what the Hyuga clan does, I push chakra into his body. The only differences are that I waited until he was using the second form of the curse seal before doing so and I used the fox's chakra." Kakashi's eye widens and Naruto laughed.

"Don't worry so much Kakashi. I'm not completely stupid, I used about half of what Neji used on me because demonic chakra is stronger. Even after that though, Sasuke still managed to pull off that Habataka Chidori thing and the explosion caused by it hitting my Rasengan knocked him out. He should be fine."

"Why are you speaking so openly about the Kyuubi?"

"I noticed that no one was here when we walked in. So why isn't Sakura here, I thought that nothing shy of a major explosion would get her away from Sasuke and even then."

"Since there was nothing medically wrong, the Godaime put her back on her normal post in the hospital, but she still visits on her breaks. We have Neji or a different Hyuga check on his progress once a day."

"Well, thanks again. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about training."

Naruto turned to leave. "Be careful Naruto, she's got a worse temper than Sakura and she hits almost as hard, after her training. She yells as much as you use to, but the way she yells and what she says send shivers down my spine like when I'm getting yelled at by the Hokage."

Naruto shuddered at he thought. "Thanks for the warning." He walks out the door and leaves the hospital.

After eating lunch, he decided that he should go get his new clothes now because there was no way of knowing how long his training with Ino was going to last.

Although the shop owner glared at him, he didn't say anything to Naruto. 'Must be a slow day, normally he's yelling at me to get the hell out.' Naruto walked around for fifteen minutes picking up a few things that caught his eye and went to try them on.

In the end, he chose a pair of orange pants, and a black zip-up jacket with orange wrapped around the back under the arms, but left a strip of black around the bottom and next to the zipper. He also decided to get a pair of black sandals, seeing has now he had outgrown his old ones like he had everything else.

He paid and quickly left the store with his new clothes in a bag he was using to carry a few things that he thought he might need for training.

When he arrived at the training ground, it was only quarter after eleven. Realizing that he was early, he did what Shikamaru did when he had some free time, lay back and watch the clouds. There was a gentle breeze blowing through the clearing and before he knew it, he fell asleep.

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Habataka Chidori- Flapping One Thousand Birds 


	3. Chapter 3

"Naruto. Naruto! Damn it, you're just as bad as Shikamaru! Get up you lazy bastard!"

She kicked him in the side and he flinched. "Ouch." His eyes opened and saw Ino standing over him. "What was that for?"

"You're sleeping when it time to train."

"What time is it?"

"Ten after twelve."

Naruto groaned. "Damn, and I was have the most wonderful dream, I think you were in it." The green of her eyes was replaced by dark violet.

Her face grew red and she lifted her foot and drove it toward his crotch. "Pervert!"

He barely rolled out of the way in time. "It wasn't that kind of dream!" He then spoke softly. "Damn, Kakashi said she had a temper, but this is no where near Sakura's. It's closer to Baa-san or a bear."

This just made things worse. Because even though he spoke softly, Ino had still heard him. "What the hell did you just say?!"

"Oh shit." She was running toward him, so he stood up and did the only thing that came to mind, ran like hell.

She chased him toward the other end of the clearing, but instead of running into the forest, he ran straight up the side of a large tree and kept going without falling off.

When he realized that she wasn't following him, he stopped and look back to find her. She was standing a few feet away from the tree staring up at him with awe. "How are you doing that?"

"If I come down, are you going to kill me?"

"Only if you don't teach me that."

"Alright." He pushed off from the tree and landed slightly behind her. "First lesson, tree climbing. Take out a kunai and concentrate your chakra at the bottom of your feet. It's best to get a running start at first, and when you get as far as you can, mark the tree with the kunai and try to beat that mark the next time. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it. Give it a try when you're ready."

Not one to back down from such a blatant challenge, Ino takes out a kunai and concentrates her chakra. She runs towards the tree and gets about half the way to where Naruto had been before the tree bark cracked under her foot. She quickly marks the tree as she is pushed away from the tree, and then uses it's force to flip in midair so she lands on her feet.

'I must have used too much, so all I need to do is back off a little.' She concentrates again, using less chakra, and runs toward the tree again. Her momentum carries her a few feet up the tree, but no further, she slipped.

Falling backwards, she braces herself for the impact. But instead of hitting the ground, she land softly with Naruto smiling down at her. She then realizes that she's in his arms and blushes.

"Trust me, the ground hurts, even from that height. So, do you want some help?" He sets her down and she nods. "The point of this is chakra control. Too much and you're pushed off, but not enough and you don't stick. You have to find the right amount and keep a steady supply of chakra to your feet, always keeping the same amount. Make sense?"

Ino smiled. "Surprisingly, it did."

"Good. I had to ask Sakura for the simple version."

"You learned this from her?"

"No, I learned it from Kakashi, but I asked Sakura to simplify his explanation."

'He looks embarrassed. Then again, if Kakashi taught him this then that probably means that Sasuke was nearby when he asked Sakura.' She stands up to try again.

As the sun goes down, Ino stands upside down on a branch thirty feet above the ground and Naruto is lying against the trunk five feet from her with his knees bent so his feet are touching it. The two of them watch the sunset quietly.

As the light begins to fade from the sky, Ino turns to Naruto. "Thank you for doing this Naruto."

"Don't mention it, I couldn't say no after all the nice things you said. Besides, I've got the next month off, it would have been really dull. Thanks to you, I have something to look forward to."

Ino looked surprised. "You mean you enjoy doing this?"

"Yeah, I'm normally training by myself, and there's no fun in that. There's no way of knowing if I've gotten any stronger."

"I know what you mean, it's been the same for me. Everybody here are either too busy or too damn lazy to help me with anything."

"Hey Ino, I have a question. Could you tell me the ranks of yourself and the other nine who took the chunin exam with us?"

"Okay. Unfortunately, Lee and I are still genin. Shikamaru and Neji are jonin, and everyone else are chunin."

"Damn Orochimaru, if it was for him I would have been a chunin the first time."

"Don't worry about that Naruto, since then you've been training under one of the legendary Sannin. You'll beat everyone at the next one."

His smile returned. "I suppose your right. Besides, if it weren't for him allying with Sand, I wouldn't have met Gaara. Sure, he may be a little crazy, but once you get to know him, he actually quite pleasant. As for the next exam, we have to be on a team to participate and even if we do get on one, I hope that I don't have to fight you, for both our sakes."

"What do you mean?"

"That mind possession thing you do creeps me out, and there's a place in my mind that is even dangerous to me. On top of that, we would have been training together up until that point, so we would know each other's moves and I will have taught you a few new jutsu by then. Before I can teach you the more advanced ones though, you'll need to increase your chakra control and your stamina. By the way, when do you want to train again?"

"How about every other day at noon, but if one of us has a mission, we pin a note to this tree. Sound good?"

"It's perfect. Remember to keep practicing tree climbing everyday for a month or two. After that, it will be so etched into your brain that when you use it, it's like you're not doing anything at all."

"I gotta get going Naruto, my parents will get pissed again if I'm not home for dinner. I guess I'll see you on Sunday then, unless I have a mission."

"I'll see ya then." She drops to the ground and lands on her feet. She waves to him and walks away, heading for home.

Soon after she leaves, he hops down as well and walks to the center of the clearing. "Time for me to train." He uses his middle and index fingers to make a cross with his fingers crossed. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In a giant puff of smoke, he becomes completely surrounded by hundreds of clones of himself. He smiles. "If it worked, this is going to be fun." All of the clones rush toward him at the same time.

There is still a light left in the sky and Naruto is leaning over, breathing heavily, in the middle of the empty opening. He stand up straight and walks out into the forest.

---------------------

Although he bought new clothes, he still wore his old ones for training. Every other day for the next month went basically the same except they normally started out with Ino complaining about how boring her missions have been lately.

"I go back into active duty tomorrow!" He's smiling from ear to ear, but when he caught Ino glare, he quickly added. "Not that it hasn't been fun training with you, but the time between sessions was getting really boring. I like to stay busy."

Ino smiled. 'That makes sense, because he has always been hyperactive. I don't think that he could stand to sit still for more than a few minutes, it must be difficult for him to sleep at night.'

"Hey Ino, you alright"

She snapped back to reality. "Sorry, what?"

"It's nothing, you just spaced out for a minute. Anyway, since you mastered tree climbing and have gotten water walking down, I think that it's time to test your chakra control."

"How do I do that?"

He smiled a fox-like grin. "Easy, you fight a match over water, but it's not going to happen just yet because you can't use your family jutsu over water or your body will sink and you could drowned."

"Then what the hell am I suppose to use? It's not like I know much else, that's why I came to you!" He just continued to smile. "Does that mean that you're finally going to teach me a jutsu?"

"The ones I use require a lot of chakra and chakra control. While you may have the control, you have nowhere near enough power. Let me think for a minute, there has to be something that I can teach you to use." He walks over to a tree and sits with his back against the trunk and his eyes closed. 'Come on think damn it! There has to be something.'

'**WHY NOT THIS ONE KIT?'**

'Are you nuts? She'd kill me for teaching her _his_ jutsu.'

'**YOU WERE CONSIDERING IT BEFORE I SAID ANYTHING. TELL HER THE REASON WHY AND SHE MIGHT NOT GET AS MAD. AT MOST SHE'LL BEAT YOU TO A PULP, AND I CAN HEAL THAT.**

The fox laughs sadistically. "You're going to be watching aren't you? I'll bet you'll be laughing the whole damn time."

'**OF COURSE I AM KIT, IT'S VERY RARE THAT I GET ANY ENTERTAINMENT IN MY PRISON.'**

Naruto sighed. 'I suppose it's worth a shot. Enjoy the show furball.' He opened his eyes and stood up. "I think I know the perfect one." His hands move quickly through a set of hand signs. He then moves one hand up to his mouth. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu." He blows towards his hand and a fireball erupts from the other side. It keeps going until it hits one of the wooden posts and explodes, but doesn't set it on fire.

Ino stood with her eyes wide. "That's… that's _his _jutsu."

"Yes it is. Even without the Sharingan, if you see it enough, anyone can copy it. Now the thief will know what it like to be stolen from."

He braced himself for the beating of his life, but it never came. "If you hate him so much, why didn't you just kill him? And don't give me that bullshit about Sakura not wanting you to."

"That is the reason! I promised Sakura I would try to bring him back alive and I never break my promises. The only way one of my promises would go unfulfilled is if I had died. Had Orochimaru had taken his body, then yes I would have killed him, but I still would have brought back his body."

"How can you possibly keep all of your promises?"

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

'That makes sense, I suppose.' She sighed. "Could you show me the hand signs again, but a little slower?" He showed her at half of his normal speed until she was sure she had gotten the signs memorized.

"We'll do the test in two months, until then be sure to practice all three things, especially the this one. It will help increase your chakra reserves."

"Okay! I'll see you in two days if neither of us have a mission. Thanks again Naruto."

"It's my pleasure. See you around Ino." Ino left the training ground and Naruto decide against his normal training routine. Instead he went straight home to rest up for the next day.

---------------------------

Tsunade knew that this was going to happen even before the blonde genin start shouting. The doors to her office burst inwards with such force that they left dents in the walls. "What the hell is the deal with the D-rank mission Baa-san?!"

Tsunade starts rubbing her temples. "Naruto, could you please be quieter? As for the mission, you're still technically a genin so I can't assign you anything higher."

"I trained with Ero-sennin for over two years, that's gotta count for something."

"It does. It means that when the chunin exam is held in six months, that you'll pass with flying colors. Until then you have to do D-rank missions because you're not on a team and have no jonin sensei. The only reason Lee goes outside the village is because Gai asks for his help on every mission except for A and S-ranks."

Naruto's anger fades surprisingly quickly and he smiles. "Thanks Baa-san, you just gave me an idea." He runs out into the hall waving.

She put her hand to her head. 'Please don't let it be what I think it is.'

-------------------------

Hosenka no Jutsu- Phoenix Flower Jutsu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu- Shadow Clone (Copy, Replication, doppelganger etc.) Technique 


	4. Chapter 4

"YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?!"

Ino was stand over a sitting Naruto. "Calm down Ino and just listen. There are some advantages to have Gai as our jonin sensei; we won't have to do as many D-rank missions, we need to be on a team for the chunin exam anyways, being with them would be better than being on a team of rookies, and we could both use some help in taijutsu."

Ino had settled down, but still looked unhappy. "Those are all good points, but I refuse to wear one of those hideous jumpsuits." Naruto chuckled and Ino shot him a warning glare, which made him stop. "So, do you even know where to find him?"

"No, but I'm sure that if we find Kakashi or Lee, that they could tell us where he lives. If it's okay with you though, I would like to wait a little while before approaching him. There's an errand I need to run before then and it will give you some time to think it over."

Ino looked at him confused. "Errand? Like what?"

He smiled. "You'll see. Now, before we get started, is there anything specific that you would like to know?"

There had, in fact, been a question bothering her since his return but wasn't sure how to ask him. Before she was able to stop herself, it slipped out. "How did you beat Sasuke?"

After she had said it, she looked down, a little ashamed, but to her surprise he laughed. "I was wondering when you were gonna ask. I'll show you."

He stood up and walked away from her. As he walked passed her she turned to watch him. He stood in the middle of the clearing with his hand reaching out in front of him with the palm up. She heard a faint whistling like the wind was picking up, but she look at the tree and the leaves weren't moving.

Her gaze returned to Naruto and she saw a small spinning blue orb growing bigger and bigger in the palm of his out stretched hand.

Her eyes widened as he made it disappear. "What… what was that?"

"It's called Rasengan, Yondaime created it and taught it to his former sensei, who taught it to me. It doesn't require any hand signs, but it's a pain in the ass to make. You have to spin your chakra and then make a shell to keep it's shape, but once it's formed it becomes self-sustaining."

"You weren't kidding when you said it takes a lot of chakra and control, it's has to be at least an A if not S-rank attack."

"Yeah, it has about as much power as Chidori, but that also depends on who uses them. It requires less chakra than Chidori too, and because it doesn't require hand signs, even the Sharingan can't copy it. I can also make one in each hand for the same reason."

"How can you have that much chakra?"

"I've always have had unnaturally high stamina and a lot of had work." He walked a little further away from her and turned back to her. "Now, let see if that jutsu I taught you has any kick to it."

"What am I aiming at?"

"Me."

"Are you insane! You could get really hurt!"

"I've fought against Sasuke and his Chidori, there's not many things stronger than that. Besides, what the worst that could happen?"

"I could set you on fire idiot. I won't do it."

"If you don't have the heart to do it now, how will you be able to in two months when we're over water, or during the chunin exam if need be?"

"At least when we're over water, when you fall down you'll be put out! And those times will be completely different, you'll be attacking me!"

'So, you just want a reason. In that case…' "Why do I even bother? Have you ever stopped to think that this is the reason why no one wants to train you? They probably all think that you don't have the stomach to be a ninja, and I must say, I'm starting to have my doubts."

Tears and anger welled up in her now violet eyes and in a blur of movement she finished a set of hand signs. She brought her hand to her mouth and used all of her anger in forming her attack. An enormous ball of fire was shot off at high speed toward the smirking Naruto. 'Good job Ino.'

'**GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY KIT, IF THAT THING HITS YOU EVEN I WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAL YOU!'**

'You've always protected me from fire!'

'**THE FLAMES AREN'T WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!' **Naruto's face paled.

The explosion that was created upon impact shook the ground and Ino fell to her knees crying. A shadow appears over her and she looked up at Naruto. His clothes were tattered and singed, but he wasn't burned at all. Worst of all, he was smiling.

"I'm impressed that it had that much power after only two days."

She knocks him to the ground, kneels on his chest, and places a kunai against his throat. "WHY?! Why would you say something like that?! You're no better than Sasuke!"

His anger visibly grew. "I haven't abandon the village despite how badly they have treated me and I wouldn't for anything! So don't you _dare_ compare me to him! And you needed to hear that, you're too trusting for your own damn good. Your enemies will use it against you, so you can't hesitate to attack if they look like people you know or care about."

"So what, you want me to attack anyone who comes up to me?!"

"I didn't say that. All I meant was that if someone isn't acting normally, say Shikamaru not being so lazy, or Choji not eat a lot, that you need to be able to defend yourself if someone attacks if their form."

Ino feels a pair of hands on each of her arms and is pulled off of him. She turns to look at the two who are subduing her and sees two Naruto clones. "How… you didn't…"

Naruto stands up and the clones disappear. "I know. The problem with not using hand signs though is that it requires more chakra, so I can't summon nearly as many. It comes in handy during surprise attacks, but if I need a lot of them, then I need to use hand signs."

Ino breaks into tears again. "I so sorry Naruto."

"It's alright Ino. No harm done."

"I just used a giant fireball on you and then tried to kill you with a kunai."

"You didn't though, there for, no harm was done. As for the fireball, when I saw how powerful it was I got the hell out of the way. I'm not stupid enough to stand in front of something that can do that."

He nods towards the site of the explosion. There's a crater that at least ten feet in diameter. "Ino, I have to talk to Baa-san, and if she agrees, I'll be leaving for a little while. I'll probably only be gone for a week, two at most. It's the errand I was talking about." He turns back to her and she's staring at him. "Ino? Ino, what is it?"

"It's beautiful, where did you get it?"

He looked down to see what she was talking about and realized that the amulet that Tsunade had given him was visible through a hole in his shirt. "Oh that. I got it from Baa-san. It belonged to her grandfather, Shodaime." He took it off and handed it to her so she could have a better look at it. "Ero-sennin said that it was worth enough to buy three mountains, but I would never have the heart to sell it. That and what Baa-san said she'd do to me if she ever found out I did." He shuddered.

Ino handed it back to him. "Why would she give you something that holds such sentimental and material value?"

"She used it as a symbol of her belief in my dream of becoming Hokage. And she kind of used it as her wager in bet she made me. She bet me that I couldn't master Rasengan in a week."

"A week?! You did that in a week?!"

"Well, I already knew how to use it, but it wasn't exactly stable. But I used my clones to win it and she became the Godaime."

"Naruto, can I ask you something personal?"

"Depends on what it is?"

"Why do the villagers act so weird when you're around?"

"That's simple, they hate me."

"For what?! I mean yeah, a couple of you pranks crossed the line, but no one was hurt and they were still pretty funny."

He smiled. 'Interesting, she thought that my pranks were funny' "You're right, my pranks aren't the reason. In fact, they were caused by the way I was treated, I wanted attention." His smile grew. "Did you know that you're one of very few people who thought my pranks were funny?"

"That time you defaced the Hokage monument, as soon as I saw it I knew you did it. It just screamed Naruto Uzumaki. That one you pulled on Iruka during the henge test though, wasn't funny at all."

"That's a matter of opinion. I thought it was funny."

"It was perverted!"

"I suppose, but the look on his face was priceless, and it had the same effect on Ero-sennin."

"But if that not the reason, what is?"

His smile dropped. "It's not something I'm comfortable talking about. It's nothing personal Ino, I rarely talk about it with Baa-san and Ero-sennin and they're the closest thing to family I have. They knew about it before I met them and don't mention it unless it's absolutely necessary. You remember the place in my mind I told you about?" She nods. "Well it's locked away in there. It's not that I'm ashamed of it, in fact it's the reason that I'm here today, but I'm not proud or happy about it."

"I'm sorry, I won't press the subject. You should know though, I can see through your mask and anyone who as taken the time to get to know you well enough probably can too."

"I doubt it. But if they can, they haven't said anything. Besides, I wear it to hide my emotions from those very same people, not for my benefit, but for theirs."

"How do you figure?"

"I don't want them to worry anymore then they already do, and I don't want anyone, especially those sadistic bastard in the village, to see how much pain their actions and words cause." He smiled at her and not one of his plastered on smiles, but a genuine smile. "I'm not really sure why I told you that, but I feel like I can talk to you about almost anything. And I'm not surprise you can see through my mask, you've always been very perceptive, and I've worn it for so long, it was bound to break at some point."

"Actually, the hole always has been there. I noticed it the first day of the academy when the parents came to pick up their kids."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wasn't sure why you wore it. I guess I thought it was because no one was there to get you."

"In a way it was. So, tell me, where is the flaw in my mask?"

"It's your eyes that give away how you truly feel."

"That right there is why so few people can see through it. Most people, even some of the people close to me, don't pay attention to my eyes. They look at my face and see the person I pretend to be. Only rarely do I show how I'm really feeling. Four or five people, including you, use my eyes to see the true me."

"Naruto, I have another question for you. Do you still like Sakura?"

"Yes, but in a different way than I did before I left. I realized that no matter what I did, that I would never be able to get her to love me and decided it was time to move on." He stopped and thought about her question itself. "Why do you ask Ino?" He smiled slyly.

A blush appeared on Ino's face. "No reason."

"Whatever, I'm gonna get going. See ya later." He waved and walked away.

------------------------------

"What the hell happened to you?!"

"Training mishap. It's nothing to worry about Baa-san."

"What did you do, step on a explosive tag?"

He turned his head to see Sakura smiling in the corner of the room. "No, got hit by a fireball, but that's what I get for pissing her off."

"Who did you piss off now?"

"Ino."

"She doesn't know any fire jutsu."

"I taught her one. It's only been two days, but the ball she created, made a ten foot wide crater where I had been standing when she fired it."

"That's not possible, in order to do that she would need as much chakra as you."

His face returned to Tsunade. "I know Baa-san, I don't get it either. The only way I can figure it, is if she's been popping soldier pills. But I don't think that's it, because I've seen up close what soldier pills do to people and she didn't seem different."

"How long have the two of you been training together?"

"Since I got back." Naruto turned to face Sakura again. "Sakura, would you mind if I spoke with the Baa-san alone for a minute?" She shook he head and walked towards the door. "Thanks."

When the door closed Tsunade started to speak. "If this has something to do with your missions, my answer is still the same."

"It's not about that. I want your permission to leave the village for a week or two, there is something I need to go get."

"You know I can't let you go alone, and not just because of you're a genin. The Akatsuki want to get their hands on you for your 'tenant'." She was speaking so as not to give out too much info, just in case Sakura was listening. "And Orochimaru wants you dead for taking his next host just before he was ready to use his forbidden jutsu again."

"I know all that, but that's also the reason why I want to go alone. No one should have to be put into harms way for my sake. You've already seen that only a hit to an instant death spot will kill me. And if someone were came along with me, I would probably get distracted and do something reckless to make sure they weren't hurt."

"I understand that, but you need to understand this. No matter how strong you are, there will always be someone who is better and you can always use some help."

"Fine. But there's only two people I would even consider taking, and one of them isn't here."

---------------------------

Ino sat at a table outside a café at half passed noon. 'Damn it Sakura, you invite me to lunch and then you're late, what the hell!'

_Flashback:_

_Ino was making her way home after Naruto had left and literally ran into Sakura. "Watch where you're going Ino!"_

"_You ran into me!"_

"_Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway. I was looking for you."_

"_Why?" Ino was getting suspicious._

"_I was wondering if you would like to have lunch with me tomorrow. We haven't hung out in a long time and I'd like to hear about what you've been up to."_

"_Okay, I guess, as long as I don't have a mission."_

"_I'll see you then."_

_Sakura runs off waving. 'What the hell was that? She didn't even try to pick a fight with me. She always does that. Something is going on here.' _

_Something hit her as she continued to try and figure it out. 'Maybe that was Naruto testing me, he was talking about people disguising themselves as people I knew just a little while ago.' Not sure if she was right or not, Ino continued her walk home._

_End:_

'Oh well, I guess I'll find out if he or she shows up.'

"Hey Ino!" She looks up to see the pink haired med-nin running toward her. "Sorry I'm late, Godaime gave me a task to do just as I was about to leave."

"What is this really about?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Sakura I know wouldn't give a rat's ass about what I've been doing, so what do you want?"

"I really do want to know."

"Yeah, as much as I want to know how the traitor's doing."

"That's not fair…"

"What's not fair?! I'm calling him what he is! He left the village for the promise of power! Which it's pretty obviously that he didn't get it!"

"That's besides the point! I just wanted to hear how you're training with Naruto was going."

"Are you really Sakura?"

"What? Of course I am!"

"Prove it!"

"How?"

"What happened to the three sound ninja in the Forest of Death?"

"This is stupid!"

"What, don't you know?"

"Fine! I took shelter with Sasuke and Naruto in the roots of a tree. I made a trap that they saw through. Lee showed up and almost took care of one of them, but the other guy softened his fall."

"The bitch grabbed my hair and they said they were going to kill Sasuke so I used a kunai to cut myself free of her grasp. I used the Kawarimi to move closer to one of them and I bit him. He beat me because I refused to let go. Then you and your team showed up and did what you could. Neji arrived and before he could do anything, Sasuke woke up."

"The seal had spread and he dislocated the arms of the one who beat me. He was about to kill them and I wrapped my arms around him. I asked him to stop, and then the seal receded. Satisfied?" **(All three were Sakura. I could have put them together, but it would have been a long paragraph.)**

"Sorry, I thought that you might be Naruto in disguise."

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?!"

"During training yesterday, he was talking about enemies disguising themselves as people I know and said to be careful if someone was acting strange. You weren't acting like yourself yesterday and I thought that you were Naruto trying to test me. So, he told you then?"

"He mentioned it yesterday. Said you almost fried him." She giggles.

"It's not funny. Besides, it's his own damn fault, he shouldn't have said that."

"You know Ino, I don't think I've ever heard him speak so highly of anyone before."

Ino blushes. "Really? He said he was impressed, but I didn't think he said that to anyone."

"I could hear the fear in his voice when he said that the ball hit where he had been standing moments before."

Ino smiled. "Alright, I'll tell you, but before that, let's get something to eat."

"Sounds good."

After they had finished eat and Ino had told Sakura about the month she had been training with Naruto, they got up to leave. As they were about to go their separate ways Sakura stopped Ino. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Godaime wanted me to tell you that she would like to have a word with you."

"Do you know why?"

"No, but it might have to do with yesterday."

'I hope not.' "Thanks Sakura." They both leave, Sakura heading to the hospital, and Ino going to the Hokage's office.

-------------------------

Kawarimi no Jutsu- Body Replacement Technique 


	5. Chapter 5

"I can't believe you're only sending the two of them!"

"It's not like I had much choice Shizune, the brat's stubborn. She was the only one he'd allow the go with him that was in the village. If I didn't allow it, we both know that he would sneak out of the village. With his talent for tricks, he could probably fool most ANBU."

"You have a point there, but still, with two powerful enemies after him, he should have more protection."

"I know you're right. Last night, I actually found myself wishing that Jiraiya were here." Shizune laughs.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that there was something going on between you and Ero-sennin, Baa-san."

The two women look over at Naruto, who is sitting on the windowsill. "Yeah right, like I would fall for the likes of him! He calls himself a super pervert!"

"He's not as perverted as he would like people to think. He is a pervert, but it's mostly just an act to keep the women at bay."

"Why would he do that? He's never had much luck with women."

"He's got an impressive bank account from the Icha Icha books he writes for one. But the main reason is, one time when he was drunk off his ass, he told me that there was only one woman that he ever truly loved, but she was happily with someone else. Hell, even Kakashi uses the same ruse. He's probably pining for someone too."

"Don't you do the same?"

"Hell no, most people just say I'm dense for not seeing it until a lot later. Sasuke on the other hand… before he left, he had a large group of fangirls, and he tried to make them leave him alone by acting like a prick. It just made them like him more, some genius, he couldn't see the obvious answer, perversion."

"That probably wouldn't have work either." The three of them turn to see Ino standing in the doorway. She starts walking towards an empty chair. "They probably would have been overjoyed that he wanted to see them naked. He should have pretended to be gay."

"I said that he was in class once and the fangirls tried to kill me."

"But that was you talking, if he had said it, they would have believed it."

"Too bad I wasn't any good at henge at the time. Then, not only would he be happy that you girls weren't bothering him, but I might have been able to have a few peaceful days before you found a new interest."

"Whatever, I didn't come here to get into a conversation about girls' crushes, you needed to see me ma'am?"

"Yes, I have a mission for you, it's top priority."

"Not that I'm complaining, but if it so important why send a genin like me?"

"Because the client asked for you by name."

"Really? Okay, what's the mission?"

"You are to go with Naruto to acquire an object of importance to him and make sure he stays out of trouble."

"So you want me to baby-sit Naruto, and this is top priority because?"

"Because Orochimaru wants him dead."

"Where are we going?"

"Naruto would you tell us now?"

"Sorry Baa-san, but they both have spies everywhere, there's no way to know if anyone's listening. I don't want them to get there before we do."

"How about what we're going to go get?"

"It's a sword that once belonged to a demon, it's suppose to have immense power."

"Then how is it important to you?"

"Its power is able to rival, if not surpass Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword. With it, I can kill him and end this war."

"Alright, when do we leave?"

"First thing tomorrow morning, so be prepared and meet me at the southern gate."

'Like you'll be ready Naruto.' "I'll be there, don't be late."

"Don't worry, I won't be."

Ino bids Shizune and Tsunade goodbye before she leaves to get ready to leave. Tsunade looks at Naruto, who still sitting there. "Shouldn't you be getting ready as well?"

He shrugged. "I'm already packed, I wasn't sure if you would agree to this or not."

"What's really so important about this sword?"

"Well the things I said were true, but there is more to it. The demon it belonged to was Kyuubi. It's adamant that I go and get it. It also seems that Orochimaru's sword is also demonic. It belonged to the Eight-tailed Snake named Yamato no Orochi. It's could just be a strange coincidence, but it may be that Orochimaru's a demon vessel too, it would explain his eyes, his tongue, why he uses snakes, and why he's able to move the way he does."

"How could he still be a vessel after switching bodies?"

"I don't think that the demons are merely sealed into the person's body, but that they're attached to the person's soul. If that true, when he changes bodies the demon would go with him. Of course, I don't know this for sure, but it would explain why Kyuubi would die when I do. Otherwise, it could just reanimate my body and use it, except for maybe death from old age."

"It's a pity that you don't drop the act when other people are around."

He chuckled. "If I did, most people would die from shock."

"If you're right about him being a vessel, why would he become part of Akatsuki, who are hunting down people like him?"

"He may have been trying to gather information on the other eight demons so he could recruit them into his army."

"That could be, show them compassion and get them to trust him. He trains them and let them get their revenge by destroying the villages that hated them."

"Exactly, and if he got his hands on all of us, he would have an unstoppable killing force wielding demonic powers. Akatsuki has obtained two of them as far as we know right?"

"No, they got another one. They've gotten the Three-tailed Isonade, the only one we know of that wasn't sealed, the Two-tailed Nekomato from Yugito Nii of the Cloud, and most recently, the One-tailed Shukaku."

"No! Not Gaara too!"

"The Kazekage is fine, we not sure how, but he survived the extraction. His power over sand remains, but it not as powerful as it once was."

"Don't scare me like that damn it! He's a friend of mine and the only one who knows exactly what it was like growing up for me."

"I know that Naruto, but I wish you could let it go. There are people here who accept you for you, some of whom even know about the demon."

"I've tried, many times, but I can't forget what they've done or the things they've said."

"I never said anything about forgetting it, what I meant was not to dwell on the past."

"I'm not just talking about when I was little! I was talking about the last month. It seems that bring back their precious Uchiha alive wasn't even enough to get them to acknowledge me, in fact, I've been getting more glares now than I did before."

"Naruto…"

He cut off Tsunade. "I gotta get going, there _is_ something I forgot to do." He jumps out of the window the leaps of roof to roof.

"Aren't you going to tell him Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade sighs. "He's doesn't deserve to have it dropped on him right now. He probably would go on a kill spree, not that I could blame him if he did." She stares at a piece of paper lying in front of her.

It reads: _'The majority of the consul has decided that it is in Konohagakure's best interest that Sasuke Uchiha's status as a Leaf ninja be reinstated and his missing-nin status be removed.'_

The order was just waiting on her signature. "What the hell are those fools thinking? If he's reinstated, he'll leave first chance he gets. And he may even try to kill the other ninja, especially Naruto."

-----------------------------

Naruto sat on the Hokage Monument, on top Yondaime's head looking down at the village. **'KIT, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT.'**

Naruto finds himself in front of enormous bars with a pair of blood red eyes staring back at him. "What do you want?!"

"**IS THAT ANYWAY TO SPEAK TO THE SOMEONE WHO SAVED YOUR LIFE NOT EVEN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AGO?"**

"You did it to save your own ass, just like every other time! Now tell me why I'm here or I'm leaving!"

"**NOT IN A VERY GOOD MOOD, ARE WE KIT? VERY WELL I'LL TELL YOU WHY YOU'RE HERE. YOU WILL NEEDED TO BE TRAINED IN HOW TO USE MY SWORD, AND I CAN'T TEACH YOU HERE."**

"Then how am I going to learn how to?"

"**IT IS ACTUALLY QUITE SIMPLE, YOU CREATE A CLONE USING ONLY MY POWER. THIS WILL ALLOW ME TO APPEAR OUTSIDE OF YOU AND IN THAT WAY I COULD TEACH YOU PROPERLY."**

"Why should I do that, you've have told me countless times that when you got free that you'd devour me!"

"**YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO DISMISS ME AS YOU COULD YOUR NORMAL CLONES. BESIDES, I WOULD GAIN NOTHING FROM DOING SO BECAUSE I WOULD STILL DIE WITH YOU."**

"That still leaves your appearance, your size, and the fact that I wasn't able to convince Baa-san to let me go by myself!"

"**I KNOW, AND THAT IS THE ONLY PROBLEM. THE OTHERS ARE EASILY TAKEN CARE OF. STEP CLOSER AND YOU WILL SEE." **Naruto slowly steps forward. **"DON'T WORRY KIT, I CAN'T BITE YOU THROUGH THESE BARS.**

Its laugh sends shivers down Naruto's spine. Naruto comes within an arm length from the bars and the giant eyes disappear. From the shadows, a tall, skinny man with long fiery red hair emerges. Naruto stares at the man, stunned, and the man smiles. He notices the blood red color of his eyes, the exact same color as the giant pair he had seen just moments ago.

He jumped back a few feet. "Holy shit Kyuubi, I thought you were a girl!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"By the way you talked, I assumed you were a girl with a sadistic personality, like Anko. How did you change like that anyway? I was under the impression that jutsu didn't work here."

"Shape shifting is an easy task for demons, it allows us to move amongst you humans without bring unwanted attention to ourselves."

"Okay, so that takes care of the first two problems, but what about Ino. What I going to tell her?"

"I could always eat her."

"That's not going to happen."

"You could tell her the truth."

"And risk her cutting my throat while I sleep, I don't think so."

"Then tell her the truth, but not the whole truth. Tell her I was the one who told you about the sword and as payment, I wanted you to take me with you."

"That could work, but we'll have to give you a different name because we can't use Kyuubi."

"I could use one of the other names I went by in this form, in fact, I think I have the perfect one, it hasn't been heard here in over four hundred years."

------------------------------------

Ino made her way to the southern gate at six-thirty in the morning and was surprised to see that Naruto was already there. Even more surprising, he wasn't alone. He was talking to a handsome red headed man.

'I've never seen him before, I wonder who he is and how he knows Naruto.' "Hi Naruto."

Naruto turned when he heard her voice. "Hey Ino, I want you to meet someone. This is Karama, he's the one who told me of where to find the sword. For a payment, he wants us to take him with us."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, but you do know that we may be attacked don't you?"

"Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary. I can take care of myself so don't worry about me. That's one thing this boy can attest to."

"Yeah, he's a really tough bastard."

Ino hits him over the head. "Naruto, how can you be so rude to someone who is helping you? I'm so sorry about his manners Karama."

"It's alright, Ino wasn't it?" Ino nods "I'm quite use to his behavior."

"Have you known him for long?"

"Yes, I was in this village when he was born and I met him then. I've check in on him from time to time as well."

"Were you a friend of his parents?"

"No. From what I was told, his parents had already passed. When I met him, a blonde man who rode on the back of a giant toad was holding him. If I remember correctly, his face had been craved into the mountainside."

"A blonde Hokage that rode atop a giant toad? It must have been Yondaime. Hey Naruto, when _is_ your birthday?" He mumbled his answer. "What was that?"

"I said, it's the day the village mourns his lose."

Ino looked at him shocked. "You were born the day the fox attacked?"

Naruto didn't answer, instead Karama did. "Only a few hours before actually."

Naruto looked annoyed. "Are you two ready to go yet?"

"Naruto, there's no reason to be so rude!"

"No, he's right my dear. We have a long ways to go and should leave right away."

'I had the Kyuubi with me all my life and we hate each other, but these two just met and they're getting along just fine, must be a woman thing.'

'I can still hear you kit.'

'Damn, I was looking forward to have my head to myself for once.' The Kyuubi smiled as they left the village.


	6. Chapter 6

Two days into the trip, Ino was getting suspicious of Karama. 'Where does he disappear to at night?'

"Time to train brat."

"If I keep training like I have been, I'll be too exhausted to fight if someone attacks!"

"And if you don't train you won't be able to use the sword, this trip would be pointless!"

"Can't I just do the same method as when I was learning Rasengan?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"You need to experience it first hand, not learn by using your clones!"

"That's bullshit! It worked just fine before!"

"Then we might as well turn back, because you won't be able to use it anyways. That means that you'll have to find another way to kill the snake freak and those cloaked bastards!"

"You know as well as I do that there isn't another way!"

"Then get off your ass and get to work!"

He mumbles as he gets up. "Damn son of a bitch."

"I heard you!"

"So!" He heads off into the woods without looking back at either of them.

'That damn brat, the next time he asks for my help, I not giving him shit unless he's about to die.' He turned to Ino. "He always like this when I tell him to do something, for some reason he seems to think that I just trying to make his life miserable."

"You're not?"

"No, I trying to help him to be stronger. After all he's been through with that perverted Sannin, he should know that training isn't always easy. Did he ever tell you that the guy pushed him off a cliff to get him to tap into a large amount of chakra?"

"What the fuck is wrong with that man?"

"I don't think that even he knows what's going on in his head most of the time. I'm surprised that Tsunade hasn't done anything worse to him than pound him to the ground."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not." A mighty roar sounds throughout the forest. "Ino stay here, I'm going to see what that was. If the brat gets back before me tell him where I went"

He quickly runs off into the forest, leaving Ino sitting alone. His words hadn't registered with Ino, she was too busy trying to figure out what kind of creature could make such a horrible sound.

'I can't believe the brat tried to tap into my power without my consciousness there to help him control it! What the hell could he be thinking! All that power could rip him apart.' He quickened his pace so he could get there before Naruto got anymore out of control.

--------------------------

'What's going on, it's never affected me this quickly before.' He's standing at a riverbank with a red two-tailed aura completely encasing him.

"Dumb ass!" Kyuubi leapt down from a tree.

"H…help… me." He could barely get his words out of his mouth.

"I will, but you have to do exactly like I say, got it." He gives a slight nod. "Good, now I want you to make as many clones as you can without using hand signs, that should expend the chakra you're using." In an enormous cloud of smoke, the surrounding area is covered in Naruto clones.

The aura around him subsides and his appearance slowly reverts to normal. His eyes close and he falls to the ground, unconscious, all the clones, except Kyuubi, poof out of existence.

---------------------------

"Is he all right?"

"He'll be fine, he's just tired."

"What happened?"

"He subdued the thing that made that roar, and between that and the training, his body couldn't take anymore stress."

"Idiot, always over doing it."

"That he does. When he decides to do something, he normally does it half assed, but when it comes to his pranks, something that involves the people close to him, or training, he rarely does. The way he sees training is, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing all the way. He doesn't hold anything back and he won't stop until he's accomplished what he has set out to do. If it wasn't for a couple of things about him, like his personality, some people may have respected him for his hard work and determination."

"I don't get it, what about him makes the villagers hate him? He already told me it wasn't his pranks, but they did probably add to it, but when I ask them they tell me not to ask and not to go near him."

"That's something that only he can tell you. Now, you should get some rest, we're going to be moving for most of the day tomorrow. I'm going to go set up some perimeter traps that will alert us if someone is approaching."

"Alright, but you should rest too." She lays down a little ways away from Naruto, her back turned to him, and Kyuubi walks into the forest. Five minutes later, a faint pop could be heard.

Naruto stood in front of the bars again and the Kyuubi was back in his fox form. **"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING KIT!"**

"Well excuse me for not knowing that I needed your help to control it! You never mentioned that!"

"**I DIDN'T THINK THAT YOU'D BE STUPID ENOUGH NOT TO REALIZE THAT SINCE IT'S _DEMONIC_ CHAKRA THAT ONLY A _DEMON_ CAN CONTROL IT!"**

"Your soul was still here, why isn't that good enough?!"

"**BECAUSE THAT'S LIKE YOUR INSTICTS, IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CONSCIOUSNESS TO CONTROL IT, IT RUNS WILD!"**

"Maybe this is something that I should be training at, controlling your power without you, then we could work together better outside!"

"**WHAT DO YOU MEAN KIT?"**

"Think about it, if those cloak freaks show up, instead of dismissing you, I could use your power and you could stay to help fight them. In a case like that, I would even be willing to let you take on this form."

"**NOW I KNOW YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS. YOU WOULD NEVER LET ME BE THIS WAY IN FRONT OF HER."**

"Which is way I said in a case like that! For all we know, they still think that I'm in Konoha. We may not see them at all, but I'm not just talking about this trip. I mean on future missions and possibly even against Orochimaru. If he does turn out to be a demon vessel, I could use all the help I can get."

"**ALRIGHT KIT. BUT I WANT TO BE THERE TO SUPERVISE YOUR TRAINING JUST IN CASE YOU OVER DO IT AND GO ON A KILLING SPREE."**

"Why, because you want to join in?!"

"**NO, BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T LET ME OUT AGAIN IF I WERE TO LET YOU."**

"Damn right I wouldn't!"

"**YOU NEED TO WAKE UP BEFORE YOUR COMPAION AND RESUMMON ME, I SURPRISED THAT I WAS ABLE TO LAST AS LONG AS I DID WITH YOU UNCONSCIOUS. I WAS ABLE TO CARRY YOU BACK TO CAMP, SPEAK WITH INO FOR A BIT AND GO INTO THE FOREST BEFORE I CAME BACK HERE."**

"I've been trying to make it so my clones wouldn't disappear after taking such a small amount of damage, but yours is the first to show any improvement at all. It may have something to do with it only made with your chakra."

"**YOU SHOULDN'T MESS WITH JUTSU, IT COULD CAME BACK TO BITE YOU, OR IT COULD BLOW UP AND KILL YOU."**

"I don't think that I have to worry about that from clones, but since we're on the subject of jutsu, I have a question for you. Can you perform jutsu in your other body?"

"**I WOULD ASSUME SO, BUT I HAVEN'T TRIED."**

"I want you to try once we're back outside. If you can, you'll be much more help in a fight, especially if you can also use your demonic powers."

------------------------------

Naruto's eyes slowly opened and he yawned. He looks around, he sees that the fire has died out and Ino is lying not too far from him. 'She looks like she's asleep, but just to be safe, I'd better go somewhere else to do it.' He gets up and leaves the campsite.

Another pop is heard and Ino wakes up to the noise. 'What was that?' She looks around and notices that Naruto is no longer there. 'He probably left to go to the bathroom or relieve Karama of watch duty.' She got up and relights the fire. No more than ten minutes later, Naruto emerged from the forest with Kyuubi following just behind him.

"Hey Ino, you hungry? Cause I got breakfast."

"Breakfast? It still dark."

"Actually, it's just about dawn, the two of you have been sleeping for some time now."

"You should have woken one of us up to take over the watch, so you could get some sleep too."

"It's alright, I don't really sleep all that often anyway, so I'll be fine."

Naruto wasn't paying any attention to the conversation that they were having, he was too busy skewering some fish with sticks in order to cook them.

"Naruto. Naruto! Did you even hear a word I said?"

"Huh. Oh sorry Ino. I wasn't listening, what were you saying?"

'Typical.' "Will you tell me where we're going now?"

"Couldn't you have just asked him?"

"Yes, but you're the reason I'm out here!"

"Yes I requested you come along, but only because Baa-san wouldn't let me go alone. If she had her way, she would have sent a whole ANBU squad with me. I don't trust many of them, and besides, they're always late when they're needed."

"Whatever brat. You and I both know that there is more to why you asked for her to come."

"Just shut up already! If you would have told me about the sword sooner, we wouldn't be in this mess! I could have killed Orochimaru in the Forest of Death before he place the curse seal on Sasuke or had the chance to kill Old man Hokage! Not to mention kill that bastard Itachi and the fish face the first time they attacked me! I could have help Yugito when they came for her and Gaara when they went for him!" Tears welled up in his eyes.

"You didn't have what it takes to wield it before, and you still don't! That's the purpose of the training you're going through on the way."

"You said that you were going to teach me how to use the sword, but so far, you're doing the same damn thing as Ero-sennin. You tell me to train, and then you leave. So when are you going to help me?"

"Once you get the sword."

"Oh, so you're going to teach me sword techniques, but until then I'm on my own, as always."

"You listen here you damn brat! What you need can't be taught, you have to obtain it yourself!"

"Whatever." He starts for the forest.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"I'm going to train so I can get whatever it is that I'm supposedly lacking!"

He didn't even look at them as he walked away and disappeared into the darkness created by the trees. 'Idiot, he didn't even bother to eat anything.'

"So much for moving today, huh."

"Probably. Damn brat, he only asked for two weeks, and if we don't get moving, we're going to run out of time. As it is, we're going to be cutting it close. Since he didn't answer your question, I will. In a remote area of the forest, a few days travel southeast, there is a small wooden shack, but underneath it lays a structure of caves, the sword is in there."

"What is it that he needs to have in order to use the sword?"

"Self-control."

"That's it?"

"You've seen him fight, he's reckless and doesn't think things trough. Most strategists know that the hardest opponent to beat is the one whose moves are irrational, but have a method to their madness, but that's rarely the case with him. He follows his instincts and hopes it works out for the best."

"It normally does."

"That just means that he's one lucky bastard." The ground begins to shake. "See what I mean, he has no self-control. He lets his emotions run wild, in some instances, it's fine, but not when you have as much chakra has him and can barely control it."

"What do you mean that he can barely control it? I seen him use his chakra with control worthy of a jonin."

"He has much more chakra than he let's on. When he uses more of it, he loses control."

"You would know all about that wouldn't you." They turn to see Naruto jump out of a tree. "We have to leave right now. Two of the cloak guys are here, but luckily they don't seem to know exactly were we are. That's also the bad news, one of them can manipulate clay and he's making it into bombs that they're dropping all over."

"How long till they get here?"

"I'd say fifteen minutes or so, which is why we have to go now. I'm in no shape to fight them and even if I were, I couldn't beat them, even if I let the two of you help."

He picks up Ino with one arm under her knees and the other around her back. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry Ino, but we haven't worked on your speed, and I'm not letting that slow us down." He turns to Kyuubi. "Do it, but keep it small. We don't want a clear cut path to us."

Kyuubi nods and Naruto takes off through the trees in the opposite direction from where he came.


	7. Chapter 7

"Why did you leave him back there, and what is he suppose to leave small?"

"You'll see when he catches up, or when we find some place to hide."

"Do those cloaked guys work for Orochimaru? And why wouldn't you let us fight if you did?"

"You're really inquisitive today aren't you?" She glares up at him and he smiles. "No they don't work for him, in fact, they probably want him dead."

"Then why don't we work with them to accomplish the common goal?"

"They're trying to kill me as well, but their method is probably more cruel. It supposedly take three days, in which they drain all of the chakra out of you and apparently the torture is like nothing else in this world. That's also why I wouldn't let you two fight, they don't care who gets caught in the middle, if you were out of sight and didn't interfere, they'd leave you alone, because they're only after me."

"How do you know all of this?"

"It's not the first time they've tried. Gaara was put through that torture, and somehow managed to survive. He knew they were after me and gave a detailed report to Baa-san I guess because she told me what to expect if they managed to get me."

"**YOU MIGHT AS WELL TELL HER EVERYTHING NOW KIT."**

"I plan on it furball!"

"Naruto, were you just talking with that fox?"

"Oh, that's right, I haven't told you that part yet. Ino, that fox is Karama, that's what I told him to keep small. He can make himself taller than the trees, and I didn't want those two to see him or any destruction he would make at that size."

"**CAN YOU DROP THE WHOLE 'KARAMA' THING NOW? I SWEAR, THE LAST TIME I USED THAT NAME, IT WAS USED LESS IN TWICE THE AMOUNT OF TIME."**

Ino was staring at Kyuubi in his fox form, looking confused, and he noticed. "I promise, I'll explain everything once we get away from those two."

They continued on without saying anything for half an hour. They hadn't found anywhere they could lay low and Naruto was getting irritated. "I thought you said you knew this area?"

"**I HAVEN'T BEEN HERE SINCE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN, SO EXCUSE ME IF I FORGOT THE TERRAIN IN THE FIFTEEN YEARS I WAS ABSENT!"**

"Are you sure you know where the sword is then?"

"**I SWEAR KIT." 'I NEVER FORGET WHERE MY DENS ARE, I USED MOST OF THEM MORE THAN ONCE.'**

"Alright, as long as we didn't waste the trip I'll be happy." An explosion ring out through the forest, then another and another, each time getting closer. "Damn it! Hey furball, grow bigger, but only so you're slightly smaller then a bear."

Kyuubi did so without remark and Naruto leaped over to him. "Good." He sat Ino on to Kyuubi's back. "Now take Ino and get as far away as possible."

"**I DON'T APPECEATE THIS KIT, I'M NOT A FUCKING HORSE!"**

"I don't care, now get the hell out of here!" 'If she dies, I'll break out of hell just to kill you Kyuubi!'

'**IF YOU DIE THAT MEANS THAT I'M EITHER CAPTURED BY THEM, OR THAT I STUCK WITH YOU FOR ALL ENTERINTY.'**

He smiled and Kyuubi takes off though the trees with a shocked Ino staring back at him. "Sorry Ino, I may not be able to keep my promise."

He climbs higher into the tree and looks in the direction that the explosions were occurring. There in the sky is a massive bird shaped thing with two cloaked riders standing on its back.

----------------------------

'What the hell is he thinking? He already said that he couldn't beat them, so why is he going to fight them? Unless…' "No, he can't do it."

"**WHAT?"**

"He's going to tap into that power you were telling me about, isn't he?"

"**UNFORTUNELY HE IS. HE'S PLANNING ON USING AS MUCH AS HIS BODY CAN TAKE, THAT'S WHY HE DOESN'T WANT YOU AROUND. HE'S AFAIRD THAT HE MIGHT HURT YOU ON ACCIDENT."**

Tears begin to roll down her cheeks. "That idiot! He's going to die before he makes his dream come true!"

"**TO DIE IN BATTLE IS TO DIE AN HONORABLE DEATH. ESPIECALLY WHEN IT IS TO PROTECT THOSE YOU CARE FOR, WHETHER THEY BE FRIENDS, FAMILY, OR LOVERS."**

"It's still stupid to throw you're life away in a fight you can't win!"

"**YES IT IS, BUT THAT BRAT HAS AN UNCANNY ABLITLY TO SNATCH VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT, AND HE HAS AN IMMENSE POWER TO HELP HIM. AS SOON AS I DROP YOU OFF, I'M GOING BACK, THE BRAT HAD BETTER STAY ALIVE UNTIL THEN." 'THEY WILL FEEL MY UNRESTAINED POWER, EITHER FROM THE BRAT OR FROM ME.'**

"Are you really a man or a fox?"

"**I'M A MALE FOX DEMON. ALTHOUGH, I HAVE SPENT THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS AMOUNG YOU HUMANS, AND DURING THAT TIME, I'VE FELT THINGS THAT ARE VERY UNBECOMING OF A DEMON, LIKE COMPASSION"**

"You make that sound like it's a bad thing."

--------------------------------------

"Where is the brat?!" He turned to his partner. "Tobi, are you sure this is the right place?"

The man wearing a swirled orange mask, now known as Tobi, looked back trough the single eyehole over his right eye. "Yes Deidara, the report said he was on this area last night, so even if he is moving, he can't have gone far." A whistling sound could be heard only moments before a shuriken stuck into Tobi's mask right where his left eye would be. "That is quite annoying. This brat has no manners, he attacks while we are in the middle of a conversation."

"Nice mask, I like the color! When I kill you, it will be mine!" Naruto stood at the top of a tree fifty yards from them. "Let's settle this on the ground! There we'll start on an equal footing, if we fight here, it will be an unfair advantage against you!"

Naruto hopped from branch to branch heading down, and Deidara order the bird-thing to the ground. "So, which one of you wants to fight first?"

"What makes you assume that we want to fight you?"

Naruto looks at the clay wielder. "The fact that every time I see someone from your group they always try to kidnap me."

"That is true, but we are not here to fight, we are here to ask you to come willingly."

He glared at Tobi. "Why the hell would I do that? You guys attacked a friend of mine."

"If you mean Gaara of the Sand, the member who did that was killed during his rescue."

"And that's suppose to make me feel better? What kind of joke is this?"

"It's no joke."

"You're right, jokes are supposed to be funny, this… this is pitiful."

"The only reason we extract the demonic powers from the host is because they don't want to willingly help us with our goals."

"There's a surprise, who wouldn't want to help a group of deranged deserters, and murderers?" He didn't even try to disguise the sarcasm in his voice. "Killing doesn't come as naturally to everyone as it does you bastards, even though we are hated, there is almost always someone who we care about and will do anything to protect."

"So what if you care for someone, it doesn't mean shit if no one cares for you. When we went to capture the Seven-tailed Kaku, the villagers didn't even try to stop us, they were happy to be rid of the host."

"Stop calling us that! We are human beings god damn it! We are more than just the fucking demons sealed into us!"

"Why do they matter to you? You don't even know them."

"They all know the pain I felt growing up, they may have felt even more than me. In that aspect, we are comrades. In the world of ninja, those who violate rules and laws are called trash. However… those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash!"

"That sounds familiar, where have I heard that before?"

Naruto stares at the hole in Tobi's mask, trying to see the man's eye. "My sensei, Kakashi Hatake, said it to my team after he administered a bell test to see if we were worthy of being genin."

"That name sound familiar too, I wonder why?"

"Enough talk! Since you won't take our offer, we'll take you by force!" Deidara rushes toward Naruto, who in an instant, is surrounded in a blood red aura.

--------------------------------

Having found a small cave for Ino to hide in, Kyuubi was moving at breakneck speed back toward Naruto. A wave of intense power washes over him. **"STUPID BRAT'S AT IT AGAIN. HE CARES ABOUT THE GIRL MORE THAN HE CARES TO ADMIT. IT'S GOING TO GET HIM KILLED IF HE'S NOT CAREFUL."**

----------------------------------

Five tails whip around behind Naruto as he dodges bomb after bomb. All the while, trying to keep both of his adversaries in sight. Tobi hadn't moved from his starting location. "Why are you running brat?!" An explosion engulfs Naruto and when the dust settles, in the center of the crater, there's… nothing. A voice comes from just behind Deidara.

"Who says I'm running?" He's hit in the lower back by a Kyuubi enhanced Naruto, sending him flying forward, where he skid to a stop.

Naruto began to charge up Rasengan and Deidara took the opportunity. He ran right up to Naruto and made a bomb that covered his chest, the aura burning his arms. He jumped a great distance away from the boy bomb, as Naruto tried to push Rasengan through his stomach. Before Naruto could move towards him, it went off. The explosion sent him hurtling through two trees before being slam against a third.

"Job's over. Let's go Tobi." Deidara start towards Naruto to collect him, when an intense, sharp pain in the back of his neck made him drop face first to the ground. His face land on its side and he saw Tobi standing over him with a kunai in his hand. "WHY?!"

"I'm sorry, but he's the only clue I have to my past and I can't pass up this opportunity."

He reached down and pulled Deidara's head up by his hair. In a swift motion Tobi cut his throat, his blood spattering the ground, and let his head fall into the pool of blood. He walked the rest of the way to Naruto's side and as he reached Naruto, Kyuubi jumped from the trees with his teeth bared.

"**MOVE AWAY FROM THE BRAT!"**

"I was unaware that you could manifest outside of the boy."

"**IT'S A RECENT DISCOVERY! NOW BACK AWAY!"**

"Clam down. If it weren't for me, he would be on his way to the leader right now."

"**YOU CAN'T FOOL ME BASTARD. YOU ARE ONE OF THEM, WHY WOULD YOU PROTECT HIM?"**

"Fair enough, but I assure you that it's the truth." He moved back ten feet and Kyuubi moved to Naruto's side, keeping both eyes on Tobi.

"**KIT, YOU AWAKE?"**

"Furball? I… is she safe?" he winced from the pain it caused to try to breathe.

"**SHE'S FINE. YOU ALL RIGHT?"**

"I'll be fine, I just need some rest. Tobi, isn't it?" The man nods. "Thank you, if I can help you I will." His eyes close as he passes out and the five-tailed aura around him slowly disappears.

"**IT WOULD SEEM THAT YOU WERE TELLING THE TRUTH, BUT DON'T ASSUME OF AN INSTANT THAT I TRUST YOU! WE HAVE TO HURRY, CAME OVER HE AND PUT HIM ON MY BACK. AS MUCH AS I HATE TO HAVE TO CARRY HIM, HE WOULD JUST SLOW YOU DOWN IF YOU DID."**

"The others will come looking for us if we don't report in three days time."

"**THEN WE'RE GOING TO BE AS FAR FROM HERE AS POSSIBLE BY THEN."**

Tobi lifts Naruto on to the Kyuubi's back and they hastily go back the way Kyuubi came.

"**I'M NOT SURE IF YOUR REPORTS INCLUDED THIS OR NOT, BUT WE DIDN'T COME ALONE. THERE IS A GIRL, THE SAME AGE AS THIS BRAT, AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT ME. I SWEAR, IF YOU TELL HER, YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR PAST OR YOUR FUTURE! IT'S FOR THE BRAT TO DECIDE WHO IN HIS GENERATION KNOWS THE TRUTH."**

"Honorable of you. Fine, I won't say a word concerning you, but if you don't wish me to speak your name, how shall I refer to you?"

"**I HAVE BEEN USING THE NAME KARAMA. KNOW THIS, EVEN THOUGH THE BRAT TRUSTS YOU, I WILL BE KEEPING A EYE ON YOU."**

"That is understandable, considering my former position."

"**GOOD, AND NOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND, WE NEED TO HURRY. I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME." **They quicken their pace and appear to be little more than red and black blurs moving through the trees.

--------------------------

**Seven-tailed Kaku- Badger (This is what I found.)**


	8. Chapter 8

Ino sits within a small alcove hidden by thick brush. 'It's been awhile since the explosions stopped. I hope everything is all right.'

She hears movement in the distance, and it's getting closer. A thud just outside indicates that someone or something has found her hiding spot; she quickly pulls out a kunai.

"**INO, COME OUT. I GOT THE BRAT." **

She is both relieved and intimated by the voice, but does what it says nonetheless. Emerging from the bush, she notices that the speaker was not alone. The other person takes Naruto's limp body off the back of the fox.

The fox assumes his human looking form. "Good, you stayed here, I was beginning to think that I was going to have to go looking for you next." He glanced toward the other person. "Ino, this is Tobi, he protect the brat from the clay wielder."

Tobi bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you for protecting him Tobi."

Kyuubi walks over to Ino. "Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to remain here. Stay close to the brat and keep _him_ in sight at all times, understood?" She nods and he walks over to Tobi. In a voice so quiet that only Tobi hears, Kyuubi says these words "If you lay a hand on her, the brat and I will bathe in your blood." With those words, he disappears in a puff of smoke.

Tobi turns toward Ino. "You must be very important to the boy if the demon has to threaten me." He carries Naruto over to her and sets him down beside her. "I have no intention of harming either of you, and I would like to travel with you. This boy may hold the key to unlocking my past." He turns around and hops into a nearby tree facing a way from them.

Thirteen hours passed without Naruto waking up. 'If I were to take control of his body, I could carry my own and we could keep moving. Karama gave me a general direction, and by the time I can't hold the jutsu anymore, Naruto should be all right. If he isn't, then we'll have to stop and rest.'

She looked at Tobi's back. 'Should I tell him what I plan to do?' She shook her head and started to perform the hand signs for her family jutsu. She said the name of the jutsu so quietly that it was barely audible. "Shintenshin no Jutsu." Her body falls limp on to Naruto's.

Unlike the other times she used the jutsu, when see opened her eyes, she didn't see the place that they had just been. "What the hell is this place? It looks a sewer. I've heard of a person's mind being in the gutter, but this is ridiculous." She started down the tunnel, and as she went, a feeling of foreboding washed over her.

Her foot splashes into a puddle and all at once the scene changes.

_A younger Naruto is crying and everyone around him, they all have they backs to him. No one cares he's crying. "Y… you'll see, one… one day I'll be Hokage, then everyone will respect me." _She pulls her foot out of the puddle as tears streak down her cheeks.

As she followed the twisting tunnel, careful not to step in any more puddles, she felt a familiar presence, but couldn't place a name to it, so she followed the presence to its source. She entered a large room that was completely void of anything except a gate of enormous bars.

"**IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE BRAT, YOU WON'T FIND HIM HERE." **A pair of giant blood red eyes appeared behind the bars. **"HE DOESN'T PREFER MY COMPANY, NOT THAT I ENJOY HIS."**

"Karama, is that you?"

"**HE'S RIGHT ABOUT ONE THING THOUGH, YOU ARE VERY PERSECPTIVE."** The eyes disappeared and the red headed man now stood behind the bars. "Why are you here Ino?"

"I was planning on borrowing Naruto's body so we could keep moving, but I can't seem to get control. Why are you here?"

"This boy is my walking, _talking_ prison. I can't leave and when he dies, so do I."

"What with all the noise Kyuubi?" Naruto walks in from a different entrance.

For a moment Kyuubi thought that her eyes flashed violet. "Kyuubi?"

He turns to see the other blonde with a look of shock and horror adorned his face. "Ino? What are you doing here?"

"She wanted to keep us moving toward the purpose of this little field trip kit."

"Would I wake up if she left my mind furball?"

"She already heard you kit. There's no way to hide it from her now, and I would think so. I've gotten the chakra you used back under control."

"Alright." He turned back to Ino. "Would you mind if we talked about this out there?"

"What about Tobi?"

"He already knows, he was one of the cloaked guys looking for me. He killed the clay manipulator, Deidara I think, to protect me, in doing so; he just joined me on their 'To Kill' list. The group wants the furball's chakra. The torture I told you about extracts it just like I said, but it kills the vessel, namely me."

"Alright, I'll see you outside." With a single hand sign, she disappeared.

"I don't suppose you're going to help me with this, are you?"

"You dug yourself into this hole and you'll have to get yourself out." A wide smile grew on his face. "Besides, I like to watch you squirm kit."

"Asshole."

----------------------

Naruto opened his eyes to see Ino looking down at him. "You shouldn't have entered my mind, especially that part. I warned you how dangerous it was."

"We've spent the last few days with him and he hasn't even tried to hurt us."

"That's because when he's out here, I have some power over him. I could dismiss him in an instant if he tried anything. If you let him out in there, he would take over my mind and body, and there would be nothing I could do to stop him from killing you or destroying Konoha."

"So why he's he in there? From what I can remember, ever since I was young I was told that Yondaime killed Kyuubi."

"Yondaime wasn't able to kill him, it took his life just to seal him. He chose me, who was born shortly before the attack started, to be the container. That's why they all hate me; they see _him_ when they look at me. All of the survivors, who were old enough to remember the attack, including Iruka, knew what really happened to the fox. The Third Hokage placed a law that forbid them for telling future generations, especially me.

"Apparently, it was Yondaime wish that I would be regarded as a hero and not as the container of a demon. The Third named me and placed me in the orphanage. At the age of three, six years before they were suppose to, they said I could survive on my own and kicked me out. The old man got me an apartment and gave me a monthly allowance to buy clothes, food, and other necessities. After I became a ninja and was being paid, that stopped and I had to pay rent from then on, as well as pay for food."

His eye filled with sadness. "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Iruka's parents were killed by the Kyuubi. He was one of the first to acknowledge me as a person. He even protected me once by throwing himself in front of a large shuriken." She gasped. "The day of the graduation test, Mizuki approached me and told me of a scroll, he said that if I were to learn a jutsu off this particular scroll that I would pass. The scroll contained all the forbidden and secret jutsu of the village, not knowing this at the time, I stole it from the Hokage's office."

"Mizuki also told me of a small clearing with only a small shack and learned a single jutsu off of it. Iruka showed up and asked me why I stole it, I told him everything. When I finished, Mizuki showed up and told me to hand it over to him. I refused, now knowing that he used me to get it, and he tried to kill me with his shuriken, which Iruka jumped in front of. His words were something like, 'Why would you protect that monster?' Then he told me 'It the reason they hate you, you're the nine-tailed fox!' I panicked, and ran off with the scroll."

"When they found the area I was hiding in, they had an argument. Mizuki said I was a beast like him, who only cared for myself, and Iruka said he was right, that beasts were like that, but that I wasn't. Mizuki got pissed and tried to kill him, but I stopped him with a knee to the face. He said he could finish me in one blow, but I used my new jutsu, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, to knock him out. He'd been right about one thing though."

She looked confused, of what he couldn't be sure, but he smiled nonetheless. "By learning the jutsu I graduated, and I stopped a traitor before I was even a genin. From what I was told, he got a very 'special' session with Ibiki, from the first part of the chunin exam. He deserved everything he got and probably more."

"Okay, so let me get this straight. Yondaime sealed the most powerful demon inside you when you were a few hours old and the survivors of the attack know it. You learned the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu from a scroll you stole from the Hokage and used it to stop a traitor the night of the graduation test. That bastard in there killed Iruka's parents and on top of all that, I'm the first person our age to know about it."

"Yes, well, except that you're not the first person to know. Sasuke knows, but he found out from Orochimaru. You are however, the first person from Konoha that _I_ told the truth to, but before that I told Gaara, his brother Kankuro, and his sister Temari."

"You only told me because I went into your head." She was on the verge of tears.

"Actually, I was planning on telling you, if you remember, I said I would when we got away from them. You know, you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."

"What, did you think that I would call you a demon and try to get as far from you as possible?"

"Something like that, yeah."

The look in his eyes told her the truth. "You thought I'd try to kill you didn't you?"

"At first, yeah I did. If you had, I couldn't blame you in the least." He shrugged. "Even I'm afraid of what I would do if I lost control."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I WOULD DO THAT, LEAST OF ALL TO YOU! I THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN ME BETTER THAN THAT BY NOW!"

"That's the problem, I don't know you that well!" His eyes fell to the ground, not even noticing her eyes change. "I've lived a hard life, the first twelve years were the hardest. I didn't understand why the village hated me. Most of the people who hate me are or were trained ninja, and most of them probably want to kill me to avenge a comrade, or family member. For all I knew, you could feel the same way once you knew."

"Ino, you have to understand, if it weren't for that law, things would have been much worse, look at Gaara of the Sand." Tobi was walking over to join them.

"You have no right to say his name you bastard, not after what your group did to him!"

"Fair enough boy, but regardless, everyone knew in his case and look what happened to him. He became an emotionless murder, who killed to get proof of his existence."

"That wasn't the only reason he was insane!" Naruto's words went mostly unheard.

"Why did your group want Gaara?"

"He was the container of the One-tailed Shukaku."

"The Shukaku is a sand spirit that devoured bits of his soul as he slept, so he stayed awake for years at a time. The body needs sleep, and anyone who spent that much time without sleep would have lost it too."

"You still dealt with your burden better than he did, and it wasn't all due to the law."

"Your wrong, he had it a hundred times worse than I did. His father ordered it to be sealed in him, the dumb son of a bitch thought he could make Gaara the prefect weapon. When Shukaku was sealed in him, he was still in the womb and upon birth it killed his mother. His father had his uncle on his mother's side raise him. They were the only ones who wouldn't run at the sight of Gaara. One day, Gaara killed a man, and his father orders his assignation. The first one sent was the man who raised him, the only person Gaara believed to care about him. As he died, he filled Gaara's head with bullshit about his mother cursing his name and the village with her last breathes."

"You don't get it, to you it may seem so different, but to anyone else, it's the same."

"Under the same circumstances, I probably wouldn't have lasted half as long before I snapped and tried to destroy everything and everyone around me."

Ino slaps him hard, leaving a bright red mark on his cheek. "DON'T YOU EVER TALK LIKE THAT AGAIN, GOT IT?! There are people who care about you in that village, and destroying it means destroying them too! If you're willing to do that, then why don't you start with me?!"

"Even if I did want to, it would just be prove that they were right, that I'm really the demon in another skin. As for the people there who are precious me, including you, that list isn't very long."

She was speechless. 'I'm precious to him?'

He turns to Tobi. "How many of the tailed-demons have Akatsuki captured. I know of four now."

"Actually, that's it, other then you, we… they don't know the whereabouts of the others."

"Good. I think it would be best if we rested tonight, and continue first thing tomorrow."

-----------------------------

The next day, they moved in silence until they stopped to make camp as the sun set. Tobi made no attempt to be with them. Instead he stopped in the last tree before the small opening to sit down.

Ino had started a fire and sat near it, her eyes wandering around the camp and every so often, rested upon Naruto. He was completely oblivious to the fact as he sat at the base of a tree with his eyes closed as if he were sleeping. This wasn't the case however.

**---------------------------------**

"**WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO KIT?"**

"We have to keep going, if we turn back now Baa-san won't let us go again without more supervision."

"**WHAT ABOUT THE GIRL? ARE YOU STILL WORRIED ABOUT HER TRYING TO KILL US?"**

"Haven't you looked into my mind for the answer?"

"**I COULD HAVE, BUT THERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS THAT SHOULD NOT BE EVESDROPPED ON."**

Naruto smiled widely. "She said she wouldn't."

"**REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME YOU PISSED HER OFF? SHE NEARLY COOKED YOUR ASS, AND SHE SEEM MIGHTY PISSED YESTERDAY."**

"I'll be fine, she doesn't know that only a instant death wound will kill me. If she tries, she'll more than likely try to run me through."

"**IF YOU'RE WRONG THEN IT'S BOTH OUR ASSES."**

"Whatever. Have you tried to do any jutsu outside yet?"

"**NO, I WAS A LITTLE PREOCCUPIED WITH TRYING TO KEEP HER SAFE AND THEN SAVING OUR ASSES _AGAIN_."**

"Alright, then there's no time like the present. Now, tell me if you know any teleporting jutsu, there's something I need you to do."

"**AS A MATTER OF FACT, I DO. WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?"**

Naruto's eyes shot open; he crossed the first two fingers on each hand and used them to make a cross. "Kage Kitsune no Jutsu."

A familiar cloud of smoke and a popping sound followed this. Kyuubi walked out of it and gave him a malicious glare. "You named it that?"

Naruto smiles at how irritated Kyuubi is. "It only works to summon you, otherwise it makes normal clones." His smile fades and is replaced with a look of seriousness. "You understand the plan?"

"For the hundredth time kit, yes I understand. But why you can't send one of your stupid toads is beyond me."

"They wouldn't get there nearly as fast as you can."

"Save your flattery, it won't help you if I do get free."

"Trust me I know, and _if_ that happens, I will kill your sorry excuse of a demon ass."

Kyuubi laughed. "Death is merely an inconvenience to demons, after enough time, we could just reform ourselves back on this plane of existence."

His smile widened and a sadistic look appeared in his eyes. "Then I won't feel bad about neutering you the first time."

"I'd like to see you try brat, you'll be dead before you get close enough." Kyuubi smiled. "Besides, you don't have a weapon in you arsenal big enough."

"This is all assuming you can get free at all."

"If there's a way, I'll find it."

"Of that I have no doubt."

"Good, then I'll be on my way. If this works that is." With a set of five hand signs, light blue flames erupts from underneath Kyuubi and he disappears in them.

"What the hell was that?"

"He wouldn't tell me the name, but it's teleportation jutsu. I sent him to deliver a message to Baa-san."

"Will she believe that you sent him?"

"Don't worry Ino, if he follows the plan she will, and even if he doesn't, it's still very likely due to the content."

------------------------

Tsunade sits with Shizune in her office trying to put a dent in the amount of paperwork that has piled up on her desk. In the center of the room, a blue fire burst from the floor and a tall red headed man steps from it.

"Tsunade, it's an honor to meet you in person.

"Do I know you?"

"Probably not directly, but we share an acquaintance. You did me a favor in saving the brat from Kabuto's wound to the heart. Although I hate to admit it, he wouldn't have survived it otherwise."

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU KNOW HIM?!"

He chucked. "I'm sorry, I forgot what I look like." His form changed to that of a dog size fox with nine tails spread out like a fan behind it. **"DO YOU RECONGIZE ME NOW?"**

"Kyuubi? How did you get out?"

"**THE BRAT LET ME OUT."**

"Why would he do that?"

"**HE SENT ME WITH A MESSAGE FOR YOU. HE HAS TURNED ONE OF THE AKATSUKI FROM THEIR CAUSE, BY THE NAME OF TOBI. HE HAS GIVEN US SOME INFORMATION. THEY HAVE CAPTURED THE SEVEN-TAILED KAKU, BUT THEY DON'T KNOW THE WHEREABOUTS OF ANY OF THE OTHERS EXCEPT US."**

"Has he given out any about who the other members are?"

"**NOT THAT I'M AWARE OF, BUT I DO KNOW THEY'RE DOWN ANOTHER MEMBER THANKS TO HIM. HE KILLED HIS PARTNER TO PROTECT THE BRAT, SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE KID BEING THE ONLY CLUE TO HIS PAST."**

"Could you keep an eye on him for me please?"

"**I HAVE NO ALLEGIANCE TO YOU, BUT I WILL, FOR MY OWN SAKE. IF HE IS PLAYING THE KID FOR A FOOL TO CAPTURE HIM, I WILL RIP OUT HIS THROAT."**

"I know you don't, but thank you."

"**KEEP YOUR THANKS. I'M ONLY HERE BECAUSE THE BRAT WOULDN'T LET ME OUT OTHERWISE. KIT WANTED YOU TO INFORM THE PERVERTS THAT HE WANTS TO SPEAK WITH THEM WHEN HE ARRIVES HOME."**

"I'll tell them."

Kyuubi nods and changes back to his human form. He performs the seals again and disappears into the flames once more.

-----------------------------

Naruto and Ino were sitting close to each other by the fire and Tobi hadn't moved from his perch. "It's only right that Baa-san be informed as soon as possible."

The sound of the Kyuubi arriving went unnoticed because of the fire Ino had made upon their arrival. "She said she would tell them kit."

His voice made the two blondes jump and he smiled. "Kyuubi, what the hell is wrong with you sneaking up on us?!"

"What's the matter kit, were you getting cuddly?"

They both realized how close they actually were and blushed, making Kyuubi's smile grow. Despite this however, they don't move away from each other. "Shut up you damn fox!"

Kyuubi laughed. "I don't hear you denying it kit."

Their blush deepened. "Did everything go alright?"

"I had to show her my true form first, but other than that yes. I told her about Tobi and the information he gave us." His eyes shifted toward Tobi. "I also relayed your message kit, which like I said before, she said she'd arrange. She was disappointed that he hadn't given us anything on the other members."

"He saved me, and you for that matter. I won't interrogate him, neither will anyone else while I live. If he's going to tell us, he will when he decides to."

"I won't be able to tell you much." They all turned to see Tobi walking towards them. "I was the newest member, and the leader didn't really trust me much. I replaced Sasori of Suna after the capture of Shukaku."

"Anything would be a great help, even if it's just who they are."

"There are two members that I don't know the names of, one is the leader. The other is a member without a partner, and someone I've never met, that one is almost always away. I don't even know where they hail from. You've met Itachi and Kisame. Deidara of Iwa and Kakuza of Taki are dead and haven't been replaced. The other two are Hidan, and Zetsu of Kusa, who both don't have partners either."

"Hidan's partner was Kakuza, but after the two and three tails were extracted, a small group of leaf ninja killed him after Hidan killed a jonin." Naruto's and Ino's eyes widen with fear. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure of all the details. Deidara and I were told the day we found you. The only thing I know is Hidan said something about moving shadows and the Sharingan."

Ino eyes filled with tears. 'Shikamaru and Kakashi.' Naruto wrapped his arms around her.

"Ino, I know how it sounds, but we can't worry about it right now. We don't know how many teams were sent, all we know is they were a jonin and we both know there are quite a few in Konoha." He turned to Tobi. "When did it happen?"

"Two days before we were told. The tailed beasts must be sealed in order, so the seven-tails will be held until then, normally with the leader. The leader has some sort of telepathy. Hidan is apparently immortal, no matter how much damage is dealt to him, he doesn't die, he carries a three-blade scythe, and if he get some of his opponent's blood he can use it to become something like a voodoo doll, any damage done to him is also dealt to that opponent. A critical hit won't kill him, but it does kill the other person. Zetsu is the strangest of all the members by far, and not just the way he looks. He has a Venus flytrap-like appearance. His skin black on one side of his body and white on the other, this fits his dual personality, one being even more sadistic than the other. The reason he doesn't have a partner is that he killed the others and ate them."

Ino had a look of disgust. "He's a cannibal with two sadistic personalities?"

He nods and Naruto smiles. "They've dropped from nine to six fairly quickly. That will make things easier."

"Not really, the ones that remain are the strongest. Itachi is the strongest member other than the leader. He wouldn't last more than a few minutes even with the Sharingan."

"Holy shit! I'm gonna have to work my ass off if I gonna beat that bastard. Could you a least tell us if this leader is a guy or girl?"

"I don't know. The leader rarely speaks more than a few words, and I've never seen a face."

"Damn it, that makes things difficult. I could have seen the bastard and not known it!"

"I doubt it kit, if this person is as strong as he says, they would have grabbed you already."

"That's true boy, if you had, I have no doubt that they wouldn't have hesitated."

"I suppose you're right, but damn it, I hate not knowing who I'm up against."

"That's common in war Naruto, and you should know that, being how you want to be Hokage."

"Thanks Ino. We should all get some rest; we'll be leaving in the morning. I'll be taking first watch. Kyuubi, there is something that I'd like to speak with you about." As much as he wanted to stay where he was, he let go of Ino and stood up.

'He used my name, it must be something important.' "Alright kit, let's go." Naruto made several clones, and walk off into the forest with Kyuubi.

Tobi had returned to his perch, leaving Ino sitting by the fire by herself. 'His arms are strong, but gentle and he so warm.' The clones took positions in the trees surrounding the camp. Ino yawned, and moved away from the fire to lie down. As she slowly fell asleep she smiled at the image of her and Naruto sitting by the fire before Kyuubi returned.

----------------------------

"What is this about kit?"

They had gone close to two hundred yards from the camp. "What did Baa-san really tell you?"

"She asked me to keep an eye on _him_ for her."

"You're actually going to do what she asks?"

"Of course not! I will never do as a human says!" Naruto brow rises. "I planned on doing it anyway, and I told him as much. I also warned him of the dangers of harming Ino."

"Are you that attached to her?"

"No, but you are kit."

"How would you know?!"

"I can see into your mind, remember?"

"Fuck you asshole!"

Kyuubi laughs. "But I don't have to in order to see it though, the way you two were sitting, is evidence enough. I must say though kit, you seem to be attracted to the bossy females." Naruto thought about it, he was right. Sakura was just about as bad as Ino, but after her training with Tsunade, her punches hurt a hell of a lot more. "I told you there was more to the reason you asked for her to come, even if you didn't want to admit it."

"Yeah, yeah. I think Ero-sennin has been rubbing off on you more then me because you can be just as bad as him you know."

"Don't lump me together with that perverted human!" Naruto laughed at how Kyuubi reacted. "You'd have similar thoughts too if you hadn't had a mate in over fifteen years."

"I haven't and I rarely think like that."

"That's because you've never had a mate before. In the thousands of years that I was alive, I never had a single son, but hundreds of daughters. Do you still wonder why I prefer to be alone kit?"

Naruto shuddered. "I really hope they don't come looking for their daddy. I can barely stand you, I don't think I could handle your offspring." Kyuubi laughed. Naruto becomes annoyed, and he disappears in a puff of smoke, but Naruto can still hear the laughter in his head.

---------------------------

**Shintenshin no Jutsu- Mind Body Switch technique**


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Naruto was still annoyed at Kyuubi. "How much longer till we get there?"

"We should arrive by nightfall kit, so stop complaining."

"Good. The damn training and then moving at top speed nonstop is really wearing me down."

"What happened to all that unnaturally high stamina you use to have Naruto?"

"I used it, between the things I just said and only getting a few hours of sleep, I don't have time to regain all of it."

"It's only gonna get worse kit."

"Can't wait."

----------------------------

As the sun set over the mountains, Naruto was growing more irritated by the minute. "I thought you said we'd be there by now?"

"Shut up kit, it just ahead." Sure enough, no more than seventy-five yards from them as a small clearing with a collapsed, moss covered shack. The Kyuubi ran head of them and transformed into his fox form, about half as tall as the trees, and let out a mighty roar that shook the ground.

"You trying to alert everyone within three miles that we're here?!"

"**YOU BE HAPPY TOO IF YOU HADN'T BEEN 'HOME' IN NEARLY TWO DECADES KIT."**

"He's got a point Naruto, anyone would be." Tobi stopped calling Naruto 'boy' after the three days of traveling with them, but they had yet to see his face.

"I suppose. So furball, how do we get in?"

"**PUSH A SMALL AMOUNT OF MY CHAKRA INTO YOUR EYES AND YOU'LL SEE."**

Naruto shrugged and did so. When he did, only his eyes transformed. He looked around, and there on the other side of the shack was a small red, glowing mark on the ground. "What is that thing?"

"**IT'S THE DOOR, YOU JUST HAVE TO CHANNEL SOME CHAKRA INTO IT AND IT WILL OPEN."**

"Does it have to be yours?"

"**NO, ANY WILL DO, BUT YOU NEEDED MINE TO SEE IT."**

"Good. Hey Ino, you want to give it a try?"

"Why me?"

"Because, it will help you increase you chakra reserves. You need to expand chakra to gain more."

"Alright, I'll give it try, but you may have finish up."

"If it comes to that." She walks over in the direction he was looking over and she places her hand right above the mark. "Now use the chakra control we worked on, but instead concentrate it in the palm of you hand."

She nods and he moves over to Kyuubi, who had changed back. "Kit, I think she can see the seal."

"How?"

"I don't know, but if she can she may be able to open it herself

"How much does it take to open it?"

"Using demonic chakra, not much, but this is the first time a human has tried because they can't normally see the seal."

"So I might not have to step in?"

"It's possible, but if you do, you can't use my chakra, or the two will destroy the seal and no one will ever get in."

"Got it, no demon power." After a few moments, the ground begins to tremble. "What the hell is going on furball?"

Kyuubi smiled. "I like this girl kit, she's almost has the door open. If I didn't know better, I might believe she was a demon vessel as well."

"How do you know she isn't?"

"Konoha was near the center of my territory, and aside of the Shukaku vessel and my last mate, and maybe the snake fag, no demon has ever entered its boundaries, even after I was sealed. There's a reason I'm the strongest demon after all."

"Did you ever fight the Eight-tailed snake?"

"He was the last and hardest to defeat. He used that sword against me and I this one. In the end though, it came down to our demonic forms." His attention turned to Ino. "She's done it, it's open."

Ino was panting from the chakra depletion. Naruto caught her just as she was about to fall head first into the hole that had opened in front of her. He picked her up bridal style and then jumped into the hole. They landed in a small stone corridor, and once they were all inside, the hole closed above them, the seal shown clearly on this side. Torches burst to life and illuminated the passageway.

"Welcome to my first den and my only true home." Ino caught his eye, she was doing everything in her power to stay awake. "Kit, didn't you bring some soldier pills with you?"

"Oh, duh. I forgot about those. Would you take her for a minute?" He hands her to Kyuubi and digs through his bag. "Ah, here they are." He gives one to Ino, who is reluctant to at first. "Trust me, they may not taste that great, but they restore your chakra."

She takes it and quickly shallows it, immediately, she feels her strength returning to her and Kyuubi sets her down. "Thanks Naruto, and thank you Kyuubi for reminding him."

"Your welcome, any human able to get in here under their own power has my respect." She blushed slightly and then they followed him further inside, torches flaming to life as the approached. "Before we do anything, we're going to get the swords."

"Swords? I thought there was only one."

"There's only one for you kit. The other is for Ino."

To say that Ino was shocked would be an understatement. "You're giving me a sword as well?"

"Yes. Though, this one isn't as powerful, it is my most prized procession."

"Then why give it to me?"

"It is not mine to use, it is in fact the reason I attacked Konoha in the first place. I explain more when we retrieve it." She knew when he said this that it was painful to him and left it at that. The corridor opened up into a large chamber, still not big enough for Kyuubi to be full size. Off this chamber were three more passages leading to more chambers.

He led them in to the passage furthest from the entrance. At the end was a smaller, but still pretty big, chamber covered wall to wall in all sorts of trinkets and weapons. "I took all of these things off of the humans that I killed, shinobi and civilians. The only things that weren't stolen from humans are the two swords. Over the next eight days you may look through all of it and take things that you think will help you survive. But first the swords, they're over here." He walks over to a tall dark stained mahogany cabinet that, somehow, fit perfectly into the wall.

He opened the doors and stepped back. Inside was a large, thick sword, rivaling Kisame's Samehada and Zabuza's Kubikiri Honcho in size. It had no hand guard, and had no need for one. The sides of the blade extended at least two inches on every side of the handle. **(A/N Like Cloud's sword from FFVII.)** Next to it was a katana, from the hilt to tip of the sheath the length of the other's blade. The sheath was dark violet, as was the hilt.

He took the larger of the two with one hand and gave it to Naruto, who had a hard time holding it up with both hands. "This is my sword, the Youkou Shikon. You will have to train your body more to handle the weight, but for now, push some of your chakra into it." He did so and the blade glowed blood red.

He then took the katana and handed it to Ino. "This sword belonged to my last mate, the only one who I chose for a reason beyond mating. She was killed before giving birth and I avenged her. The men who had desecrated her body wore the leaf headband. I attacked after bring her sword here to store with my own. She never told me the name of the sword, so I simply call it Aijin Yaiba. You don't have to if you don't wish to, I leave it up to you."

"I think it's a fitting name, and am sure she would agree."

"Thank you, now do the same as the kit." She did so as well, and he saw her eyes change to violet again as the blade glowed the same color.

This was the first tine Naruto had really noticed the change, and his mouth fell open. 'Kyuubi, I'm not imagining that am I?'

'No, you're not. This is the second time I've seen it since we left, but the first time I didn't have as close a view from behind the bars.'

'You mean when she found out about you?'

'Yes, when you said my name.'

"Is something wrong you guys?"

Her voice stopped their inward conversation. "No, nothings wrong. The furball and I just noticed that when you were pushing your chakra into the blade that your eyes where the same color as the aura."

"They were?"

"Yes." 'The color was the same as hers.' "Ino, did you see kit's eyes when he was looking for the seal?" She nods. "What color were they?"

She remained quiet for a moment while she thought about it. "I think they were red."

"They were, they change color when he uses my power."

"But why would mine change?"

"I don't know. At first I thought it might be a blood limit, but now I'm not so sure. Tell me, what is your birthday?"

"September 23, why?"

'Only a few days before…' "Have you ever gone to your own mindscape?"

"No, I don't know how, and my jutsu won't work on myself."

"Kit, I want you to explain how to her, I'm going to go check on something. I'll be back in fifteen minutes or so."

Without waiting for any response, he left the room. 'Damn fox, vague as usual. Oh well, at least it will be a nice break from the hellish training he puts me through.'

He turned to Ino, who looked really confused. "To enter your own mindscape, you basically meditate. You just relax and clear your thoughts. It gets easier after you've been there once, because afterwards, while you clearing your thoughts, you can concentrate on a place in there and go there. Say I want to speak with him, I concentrate on his cell and I be standing in front of it."

"So I just sit and relax, while clearing my thoughts?"

"Yeah, but it's harder then you think, especially when you just had a bunch of crap dumped on your lap, like you just did. Between finding out about Kyuubi, this place, and your eyes, you'll probably be trying for a while. Just try to be as much like Shikamaru as you can."

Ino giggled. "Then I best get started."

"Alright, I'll try not to disturb you." They both sat down, Naruto placed his sword on the ground next to him, while Ino's was laid across her lap.

A half hour passed and Kyuubi still hadn't return, and Ino was still sitting there quietly, he couldn't be sure if she had succeeded or not. 'Kyuubi can you hear me?!'

When there was no response, Naruto started getting really pissed. 'Damn fox, what the hell is he doing?!' He stood up and was about to leave when he noticed that Ino was shaking. This soon turned into a convulsion. 'What the hell?! Kyuubi get your ass back here now! Something's happening to Ino!'

--------------------------

Kyuubi sat alone in another large room. "Everything points to it being her, but if it is, why the hell didn't I notice anything before?" Naruto was trying to speak with him, but he ignored it and Naruto fell silent again. "Damn brat, I haven't been gone that long."

Naruto's voice returned, full of panic. 'What the hell?! Kyuubi get your ass back here now! Something's happening to Ino!' Kyuubi dashed out of the room heading for the armory. Just before entering, he stopped, hearing the sound of steel hitting steel.

-------------------------

Naruto knelt next to Ino shaking form. "What the hell could she have found in there that would do this? Hell even the shit I found never did this, and that was some really fucked up shit."

Ino stopped shaking and her eyes shot open, they were the darkest violet he had ever seen. "Who are you, and why do you hold Lord Kyuubi's sword?"

'Lord? Him?' "What did you do to Ino?"

"Know your place human! You will answer me and put his sword down now!"

"And if I don't?"

"Then you shall die!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

"So be it!" She drew the katana and ran towards him. She was moving faster than Ino ever had, and because of the swords weight, Naruto was having trouble even blocking her attacks. "You can't even handle the blade, you would do better if you dropped it!"

"Yeah right, and let you have a clear shot at my body!"

"I see you not as stupid as you look, but still you're not very bright either."

"Now, now, is this any way to treat our guest?"

The voice came from the doorway and both turned. "Lord Kyuubi! This human has taken your sword."

"He's inherited it. Much has happened since the last time we saw each other. We both have been sealed into humans, I in this boy and you apparently in the girl you're possessing. I must say Kiku, you've caused me quite a bit of trouble."

"Who is she furball?"

She slipped her blade under his defense and placed it against his throat. "Show Lord Kyuubi respect human!"

"Kiku stop it! His question is justified, and I have learned to deal with his comments. I'm bound to the brat, you kill him and I die as well."

"Then you could reform."

"No, I would be stuck with him for all eternity." She lowered her blade. "Now kit, she is the true owner of that blade."

"You said she was killed. That was your reason for the attack and why I got stuck being your prison."

"I believed she was. Whatever seal they used, it was different for the one used on me. Her body would have been intact if it weren't for those bastards, mine disappeared with me."

"I'm sorry my lord, I was unable to give you a son."

"Don't blame yourself, the bastards that did it paid dearly. And there was no way of knowing if you would bare a son, I've found a surrogate in my container."

"And yet you plan to eat me if you get free."

"Should I get free, there will be more time to conceive a son, so you will be useless."

"What happens if you only have more daughters?" Naruto smirked when Kyuubi went wide-eyed, he obviously hadn't thought of that possibility.

'Damn, the brat makes a good point. I may never have a son, and if I kill him without having a son, my legacy dies with me, but I would still outlive the brat. Though surely he would have children to carry on his name'. He was brought out of thought by Naruto laughing. "What's so funny kit?"

"I just found out that by concentrating hard enough, the bond we share works both ways."

"So, you were listening?"

"Damn right, after all the times you've done it to me. The good thing is now I know why you do it, it's funnier than hell. I only wish I could use it on other people."

"Such as Ino?"

"Of course, and I bet you anything I could get something good from Kakashi too. You know what's really funny though? Kiku means chrysanthemum, and she's sealed in a girl, whose family owns a flower shop." He turned to Kiku. "Speaking of Ino, could you let her out now?"

"This is the first time I've seen the outside since I was sealed and you want me to be locked away again?"

"Only for the time being, I'm going to teach her how to let you manifest outside of her like I do Kyuubi."

"How?"

"She uses a small amount of your power to create a Kage Bunshin and you appear looking like… uh… whatever it is you look like."

"How long will that take?"

"As long as you're willing to let her use your power, a day, three at most."

"Fine, I waited this long, a few more days won't hurt."

"There are a couple things you should know though."

"Oh, like what?"

"You'll still be sealed in her, if she is knock out you will eventually disappear, and if she dies, you would to, just like Kyuubi here."

"It would be wise for you to help her during battle, to give her strength when she needs it, and if necessary, take over to protect the both of you. We will help in whatever way we can, but we can't always be there as was the case the last time." He looked at Naruto. "Oh, and be sure to warn her against using your chakra when your outside her body, the brat found out the hard way the he couldn't control it and almost got himself killed."

"She contacted you correct?"

"Yes, briefly."

"Then the two of you should be able to speak to each other at any time, or at least that what happened for us. I met him face to face and now I can't get him to shut up."

"If only I could tune you out brat, then my prison would be bearable."

Kiku giggled and her eyes changed back to green. "What happened?"

"Would you like to explain Kyuubi?"

"No, I going to go rest." He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Okay, where to start. While you were meditating, you start the shake violently, and when you stopped, you woke up, but it wasn't you. Apparently, there's a demon sealed in you too, in fact it's the original owner of the sword you received, Kyuubi's mate."

"He said she died."

"Apparently not. Oh, her name is Kiku." She just looked at him. "Come on, we got go train, I told her I would teach you to let her out like I do Kyuubi, which means you get to learn Kage Bunshin. When we get back to the village though, the only people we can tell are Baa-san, Ero-sennin, and Shizune. Kage Bunshin isn't such a big deal, but Kiku is." She nods and sheathes her katana and follows him out of the room.

----------------------------

Youkou Shikon- Crimson Fang 

**Aijin Yaiba- Lover's Blade**


	10. Chapter 10

Kyuubi told Naruto the way to an empty chamber that they could use for training. Naruto had left several clones to look through the stuff in the armory. He worked on building his body strength, with some weights he had already found, and helped Ino out when she needed it. Her progress astounded him, she had only just come in contact with Kiku, and she was able to use one of her tails of chakra, the aura was violet like that of her sword's.

"You learning to use her power much faster than I did, now all you need to learn is Kage Bunshin. I wouldn't try to summon her just yet, so you need to only use your chakra for now."

She nods and starts to concentrate her chakra. She makes the cross seal she had seen Naruto make quite a few times. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Smoke surrounds her and when it clears, there are three of her clones looking back at her. "I did it."

"Great job Ino, but you should keep it up, try for five before bed."

"I think I can do that." The clones she had made were gone in a poof of more smoke and she smiled as she prepared to use the jutsu again.

'Hey furball.'

'**WHAT IS IT KIT?'**

'When are we going to start the sword training?"

'**WHEN YOU CAN EASILY SWING IT ONE HANDED, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE TECHNIQUE CALLS FOR. SHOULD WE GO BACK TO THE LAND OF WAVES, BE SURE TO TAKE POSSESSION OF THAT MAN'S ZANBATO. IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE WEAPON.'**

'How do you expect me to carry this swordlet alone Zabuza's too?'

'**SUMMONING.'**

'You mean like Tenten does with the scrolls?'

'**SOMETHING LIKE THAT KIT. THERE SHOULD BE A SCROLL WITH ALL THE DETAILS IN THE ARMORY.'**

'All right, I'll keep an eye out for it. I got another question though, what kind of creature is Kiku, I would assume a fox, but I thought I'd better ask so I don't insult her.'

'**WHAT WRONG WITH FOXES?'**

'Nothing, I just rather be safe than sorry.'

Kyuubi laughed. **'DON'T WORRY KIT, SHE IS A FOX IN EVERY WAY, AND SHE WON'T KILL YOU, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN SHE WON'T BEAT YOU TO AN INCH OF YOUR LIFE.'**

'Damn, she just as bad as Baa-san. Those two will get along fine, but we might not want to introduce her to Ero-sennin, or you might kill him for ogling her.'

'**I WOULDN'T HAVE TO, IF HE DIDN'T DROP DEAD FROM JUST LOOKING AT HER, SHE'D DO IT FOR LOOKING AT HER.'**

"Really, that's interesting."

"What is?"

'Shit, I said that out loud.' "Kyuubi just told me about a scroll that shows a way to summon weapons like Tenten does."

"That is interesting, but that's not what you were talking about. I saw that look on your face, so don't try to lie to me."

"Alright fine. He said that with one look at Kiku, Ero-sennin would drop dead and if he didn't she'd kill him for looking."

"See, you didn't have to lie, but just out of curiosity, why did you?"

"Let's see, on our first training session you called me a pervert and tried to end my bloodline because I said I thought you were in my dream."

"Well, if it wasn't perverted why would _I_ be in it?" She was smirking.

"Apparently, it was a memory from when I was three. I got bullied and a young girl offered to kick the bullies' asses for doing it, but I told her no. Her mom came and when she wasn't looking, I hid in a tree."

"What do I have to do with it?"

"The girl introduced herself as Ino Yamanaka."

"I don't remember that."

"We were three, and don't feel bad, I didn't remember either until that day."

"Naruto, can Kyuubi and Kiku affect the way we feel?"

"They can multiply an emotion's strength, but the only one Kyuubi's ever affect for me was anger. Even then though it was to keep me alive, it allowed me access to his first tail of chakra."

"So we don't feel their emotions?"

"Not that I know of. I not saying it's impossible, but I've never felt anything he has except for complete and utter hatred of snakes. Of course that was after I was almost digested by a giant one." He smiled. "What's with all the questions anyway?"

"I'm just trying to find out what to expect now that we completely connected." 'So this feeling is my own.'

'**OF COURSE IT'S YOURS, MINE WOULDN'T BE DIRECTED AT THE VESSEL BUT THE ONE INSIDE HIM. YOU'VE ALSO HAD THEM BEFORE YOU KNEW ABOUT KYUUBI OR ME.'**

'That's true, I have. And Kyuubi is handsome, I'll give you that, but he can be pretty cold too.'

'**WHEN I FIRST MET HIM I WOULD HAVE AGREED WITH YOU, BUT HE _IS_ A DEMON. DEMONS FIND THAT MOST EMOTIONS ARE USELESS, THERE ARE A FEW EXCEPTIONS. AFTER A WHILE, HE GROWS ON YOU, AND IS PLEASANT ONCE YOU GET TO KNOW HIM.'**

'Then why don't they get along?'

'**I DON'T KNOW, BUT BOTH COULD USE SOME RESPECT TOWARDS THE OTHER.'**

'I agree. Naruto's calls him quite a few things, and Kyuubi calls him kit or brat. But at least Naruto uses his name occasionally, I don't think I ever heard Kyuubi call Naruto by name. Hell, he's used my name since I met him, even before I knew who he was.'

'**WELL, HE SAID HE THINKS OF NARUTO AS A SURROGATE SON, BUT EVEN A FATHERS CALLS THEIR SONS BY NAME.'**

'He said he respected me just for getting in here on my own. So what would it take to get him to respect Naruto?'

'**HARD TO SAY, MAYBE A FIGHT BETWEEN THE TWO, BUT THE BODY KYUUBI IS IN WOULDN'T LAST LONG.'**

'Actually, it might. Naruto uses a different hand sign to summon him and when he was knocked out, Kyuubi didn't disappear until a while afterwards. So it might be possible.'

'**WELL THEN, WE SHOULD PURPOSE THE IDEA. UNTIL THEN THOUGH, YOU WANT TO FUCK WITH THEM?'**

'What?!'

Kiku laughed. **'I DIDN'T MEAN LIKE THAT, ALTHOUGH YOU'RE ABLE TO BARE CHILDREN.'**

'Hell no! I wouldn't do that unless I knew with a hundred percent certainty that he felt the same way about me.'

'**WHAT I MEANT WAS MESSING WITH THEIR HEADS.'**

'How? One's an ancient demon and while the other is the best prankster I've ever seen.'

'**I'M ALSO AN ACIENT DEMON, THOUGH NOT AS OLD, AND KITSUNE ARE KNOWN TO BE TRICKSTERS. TELL ME, HAVE YOU SEEN ANY OF THE CLOAKED MEN WHO ARE AFTER THEM?'**

'Only Tobi, but he's not one of them anymore.'

'**THEN LET'S GO TO HIM FOR SOME HELP. YOU MAKE SOME CLONES AND TRANSFORM THEM TO LOOK LIKE THOSE PEOPLE AND SEND THEM BACK IN.'**

'They won't last long, and they're going to be pissed afterwards.'

'**THAT'S THE POINT, WE'LL GET THEM WORKED UP AND THEN PURPOSE THE FIGHT TO BLOW OFF SOME STEAM.'**

'I like it. This will be fun, entertaining, and maybe even productive. If they don't respect each other after this, then at least we got some laughs.'

'**I'M REALLY STARTING TO LIKE THIS PARTNERSHIP OF OURS INO.'**

'Me too, at first I didn't think it would be this comfortable sharing my head with someone else, but now, I couldn't be happier. Will you teach me to use your sword to it full extent?'

'**IT'S OUR SWORD AND YES I WILL. KYUUBI WILL TEACH HIM AND I YOU.'**

'Thank you Kiku.'

'**IT'S MY PLEASURE, FOR THE STRONGER YOU GET, THE LONGER WE LIVE, AND THE BETTER WE CAN HELP THE MEN WE LOVE, LIVE JUST AS LONG.'**

Ino walked over to Naruto with a smile on her face. "Naruto, there something I want to go check, I'll be right back."

"You don't have to tell me, I know you can take care of yourself. You also got Kiku within you, and only someone with demonic chakra can see the seal to get in here, so I'm not worried in slightest."

"I know, I was just being polite." He smiled and went back to training. She left the room looking Tobi. She found him in the main chamber, he had barely moved since they got here. "Hey Tobi."

"Yes Ino?"

"I was wondering if you could henge into the four members of Akatsuki you told us about."

"I can, but why?"

"Kiku and I want to mess with Naruto and Kyuubi a little."

"Alright, but I don't think that such a good idea, you could get really hurt."

"I know. That's why I'm going to use Kage Bunshin." She told him what they planned to do.

"That's a well thought out plan. But when they get angry, remember I had nothing to do with it, okay?" She nods and Tobi henges into Itachi, followed by Kisame with his Samehada, Hidan, and finally Zetsu.

"Thanks Tobi." She smiles evilly and heads back towards the training chamber. Before going into the hallway, Ino creates four clones, using some of Kiku's chakra, and henges them to look like the four Tobi showed them. She sends them in and stands near the doorway, with a good view of the room, but they couldn't see her.

-----------------------------

"Well, look what we have here."

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard the blood curdling voice. "Itachi." He turned around to see that he wasn't alone, Kisame and two people he didn't recognize, but one that was definitely the member Tobi described as Zetsu. 'Shit, this is bad.' "How did you get in here?"

'Itachi' just kept his eyes on Naruto. "How do you think? The Sharingan can see things normal eyes can't."

Naruto crossed his fingers and made a cross. "Kage Kitsune no Jutsu." Kyuubi appeared in his human form, looking absolutely livid.

He shifted into his fox form and roared. **"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY DEN YOU CLOAKED BASTARDS!"**

"It seems we really pissed them off Itachi."

--------------------------------

Ino was smiling in the hall. 'Kiku, should we really piss Naruto off?'

'**WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?'**

--------------------------------

'Zetsu' turned so his blackened skin was closest to Naruto. "Let's finish this quickly, I wish to devour the girl's flesh."

He faced the other direction so his white side showed. "We must take care of the traitor as well. Perhaps we should allow Hidan to torture him before killing him."

Naruto eyes were dark red with no pupil, his sword in hand glowing the same color as his eyes. He charged forward and 'Kisame' was the first to step forward, his sword on his shoulder. 'Kisame' block every attack Naruto threw at him. The aura was spending around Naruto quickly.

Kyuubi was charging 'Zetsu', his back reaching the top of Naruto's head. Kyuubi tried to claw and bite him, but the man-plant was too fast and dodged heading toward 'Hidan'.

A fireball was shot at Naruto's back, both he and 'Kisame' moved out of the way as 'Itachi' ran forward to attack with his partner.

'Kyuubi, do these guys seem different to you?'

'**NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, THEY SEEM WEAKER, MAYBE ON PAR WITH KAKASHI.'**

'That's what I thought. We shouldn't be doing this well against all four of them, and Itachi hasn't even tried to use the Mangekyo Sharingan.'

'**BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?'**

'It means they're fakes, clones. Wait. Oh damn you Tobi!'

'**WHAT DID HE DO?'**

'It either he created these, or he showed the girls what they look like, because they've never met any of them. Either way, one hit and they poof.'

'**THAT'S EASIER SAID THEN DONE KIT. THEY BOUNCING AROUND SO MUCH I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN ABLE TO GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO HIT THEM. EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE CLONES, TWO ON ONE IS STILL DIFFICULT.'**

Naruto was fending off both 'Itachi's' strikes, and using his sword to block Samehada. He takes a hit from 'Itachi' to the side, but it moves him out from under 'Kisame's' swing. He stabs 'Kisame' though the side and sure enough, he pops out of existence.

--------------------------

'Looks like they found out.'

'**OH WELL, THEY STILL HAVE THREE TO GO.'**

--------------------------

With 'Kisame' gone, Naruto can focus on 'Itachi', but he is just as quick as 'Zetsu'.

Kyuubi stops chasing 'Zetsu' and heads straight for 'Hidan', who pulls out his scythe. Kyuubi runs past him, his tails whipping around behind him. A trail of dust follows him as he skids to turn around as 'Hidan' disappears as well. He rushes off to help Naruto with 'Itachi'.

Seeing Kyuubi running toward him, Naruto fought to push 'Itachi' into his path. Kyuubi jumped on to 'Itachi' and when he hit the ground he also vanished. "That just leaves the weed." 'Then we go and find the girls. I doubt Tobi can make Kage Bunshin, but he's just as much guilty as they are.'

"**LET'S FINISH THIS QUICKLY."**

--------------------------

Ino looked a little scared as she watched from her hiding spot. 'Should we start thinking up a excuse?'

'**THAT'S PROBABLY BE A GOOD IDEA. I DIDN'T THINK THEY WOULD FIGHT SO WELL TOGETHER.'**

--------------------------

They were both running towards 'Zetsu'. Kyuubi tried to land on him, and he moved at the last second and still managed to dodge Naruto's swing. Kyuubi charged again knowing that he would move, as soon as he was past him, he transformed back to his human form and grab hold of him form the back.

"Do it now kit!" Naruto nodded and charged, his sword straight out in front of him. The sword stabbed clean through both of them and both disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'You alright Kyuubi?'

'Yes, more or less. I didn't think I would actually feel the pain though. You did a good job kit.'

'Thanks, you take a rest, I find the girls.'

'I planned on it kit.'


	11. Chapter 11

It didn't take him much time to find them because they hadn't moved. "What the hell was that about?"

"We wanted to help you train."

"By scaring the hell out of us?"

"It worked didn't it, you were swinging the sword around with ease."

"You were only joking, but the would actually do that shit to you and maybe even more. We don't want anything to happen to the two of you." He turned down the hallway. "As for you Tobi."

Tobi just appeared out of nowhere. "Sorry, but I couldn't miss a show like that."

"You knew what they were going to do and still you went along with it. If they found out about them, they'd be after them too."

"Actually, they wouldn't be, they want the strongest from each type of demon, since she is also a fox, they would still come after you."

"Aren't I special. Don't do anything like this again, no matter what the reason. We found out something about the bodies Kiku and Kyuubi use out here, they can feel pain." Tobi headed back the way he came and Naruto turned his full attention back to Ino. "What was that about?"

"I already told you."

"And it was the same thing then as it is now, bullshit. So?"

'Should we tell him?'

**'He told you the truth after you caught him, it's only fair.'**

"Fine, we were trying to get you and Kyuubi riled up so you two could spar and hopefully learn to respect each other."

Kyuubi laughed through Naruto's mouth. **"We have a mutual respect for each other's power, determination, and even stubbornness."**

"Then why don't you use Naruto's name? You use everyone else, even mine."

**"The same reason he rarely uses mine. Just because we respect each other doesn't mean we like each other."**

Kyuubi's voice faded. "At least we like each other enough to trust one another. Over time we may grow to like each other more, but that's enough for now." Naruto smiled. "I must say, those were some strong clones, each were at least as strong as Kakashi. So, shall we meet Kiku face to face now?" Ino just nods. "Okay, let go back in to give us some room."

--------------------------

Naruto explained the changes that he had made to Ino, and gave her some space to perform the jutsu.

He summoned Kyuubi again once he made it the wall. "What going on kit, why are you so far back?"

"I'm not sure if she come out in her fox form or her human one, and I prefer not have her summoned on top of me."

"Aren't you worried about her then?"

"No, clones are summoned around the original, not on top of them. In fact, I think I'm gonna move away from you too. I know what she'll do as soon as she sees you."

Kyuubi laughs as Naruto moves toward the door of the chamber. He never made it all the way there. Ino had crossed her fingers and made a cross. "Kage Kitsune no Jutsu."

There was a loud roar and when the cloud of smoke cleared, a large white fox with dark violet, cat-like eyes sat next to her vessel, six tails circling Ino on the ground. Kyuubi smiled and walked over to them. "Kiku remember where you are. Your voice in that form will deafen us all."

She nods and her appearance changes to a slim woman, about the same height as Shizune, with long white hair that reached her mid-back, and, like her fox form, dark violet eyes with silted pupils.

'Holy shit, that was one hell of an understatement you made Kyuubi, half the men in Konoha would kneel over just seeing her like that.' Kyuubi smiled, hearing Naruto's thoughts. He wasn't smiling for long, because Kiku ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. His arm wrapped around her waist and he returned the kiss.

When they finally broke apart, Kiku smiled. "I really missed that, and a couple of other things." She winked at Kyuubi, who smiled.

'Kit, you should pay attention, you might learn something you can use to make a good impression on Ino.'

'Like I need pointers from you.'

'Better me than the perverts… hmm, if we can feel pain in these bodies, I wonder what else we can feel.'

'God damn, I don't want to hear shit like that!'

'I told you before, there are some thoughts that shouldn't be eavesdropped on.'

'Are you senile? I didn't eavesdrop, you said that to me.'

"It's getting late, the two of you should turn in soon. We start the real training tomorrow, and after Ino's little trick, she needs to recover her chakra."

"Where are we supposed to sleep?"

"You could sleep in our chamber, since we won't be using it. Of course it's up to Kyuubi."

She winked at him and he knew what she thinking. "I agree. It would be better than having you sleep on the stone floor. First though, kit you still have clones in the armory, and you should see if they've found that scroll."

"That's easy enough." He made a hand sign and a popping sound echoed through the halls. "They found it, and placed it in the main chamber."

"Good, then tomorrow I'm going to teach you how to use it. Now, to get to the chamber you take the only passage you haven't been down yet, it's on the left."

"You never said that about the others, so what on the right?"

"A hot spring. If you plan on eating before sleeping, you can make a fire in the main chamber. Kiku and I have something we have to discuss, so go do whatever you're going to and then get some sleep." The two blondes left and once the two kitsune were sure they were gone, they started laughing. "Kiku, you haven't lost your touch, I can't wait to see their faces when the see that room."

"I do what I can my love. I don't think I kept my thoughts from Ino though. She is adept in seeing into minds."

"If she knew, she wasn't complaining."

"That could just be because she loves the boy."

"Then they'll both be happy, embarrassed as hell, but happy. We could seal them in there. It would have to use a pretty powerful seal though, otherwise it would disappear when we did."

"I don't think we have to do that. We just have to get one of them to admit it to the other."

'I'm going to kill you, you bastard!'

Kyuubi smiled. "It seems our fun is over for tonight."

-----------------------------

"Naruto, you want something to eat?"

"I'll probably regret it later, but I think I'm gonna just go to bed."

"Just leave some room for me."

"Given Kyuubi's size, I don't think that will be hard."

'You'd be surprised.' "You're right, what was I thinking?"

Naruto walked toward the chamber Kiku had mentioned. 'That was odd." He shrugged and kept walking until the passage split in two. He went down the left one and stopped again when he saw the room. It was bare wider than the hallways, in both directions. The floor covered with hay, and the walls were covered in seals.

'I'm going to kill you, you bastard!'

He heard Kyuubi laughing in his head. **'You got there faster than I expected Kit.'**

'What the hell is wrong with you, there's barely enough room for one person in here.'

**'That the point. You're too dense to see it, but she loves you Kit. You've already admitted to being attracted to her, so we decided that it's in both of your best interests that we make it painfully obvious.'**

'I was wrong, you're not as bad as Ero-sennin, you're much worse. He's never went this far, even he knows where to draw the line.'

**'Quit acting so damn innocent, we both know how you really feel about her. Don't forget that I know more than you do. Tell me, do you remember the dream you had last night?'**

Naruto's eyes widened. 'You're an asshole, you know that don't you?'

**'Kind of hard not to with you reminding me daily.'** Kyuubi laughs again. **'That wasn't the first time you've dreamt about her either, even back when you were chasing after the other bossy female you dreamty about her**.'

'Go to hell bastard.'

**'I'm quite content right here, now that I know my mate's not there. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back tER.'**

'I could always cut you leave short.'

**'You could, but then you'd be stuck with me annoying the hell out of you.'**

'How's that any different from any other time?'

**'If you leave me out, you'have a few hours without me.'**

'I'm going to sleep anyway, you won't last long.'

**'Assuming you get to sleep.'**

'What are you getting at?'

**'Oh nothing, except the fact that Ino's on her way to join you.'**

'Great, she'll be even more pissed you dumb ass.'

**'She already knows. Kiku couldn't keep her thoughts from her.'**

'Why didn't she say anything?'

**'Are you deaf or just stupid? I already told you she's in love with you. Whatever deities that watch over you must have decided that you deserve something for your pain and suffering, so be grateful brat.'**

'And the fact that she contains your mate is just a coincidence?'

**'No, it's a bonus.'**

"Naruto, what's wrong?"

"It's a pretty small room for the two of us to share."

"I guess it is small."

"You should sleep in here, I'll go out in the main chamber."

"I don't mind sharing this room with you. Or is it that you don't want me to share it with you?"

"It's not you, it's the room. I don't think I could be comfortable sharing such a small space with anyone."

"You already do. Both you and Kyuubi share the same body, which is even smaller than the room."

"I suppose that's true. Are you sure you want me to sleep here too?"

"If I wasn't comfortable with it, I wouldn't have offered. Besides, it was nice being so close to you last night."

"Alright, but this can't get back to Konoha, people will say things about you that I won't stand for, and Hinata would be devastated."

Ino was shocked by this statement, since it came from Naruto. "Why would Hinata care?" She knew the reason, but she like everyone else thought Naruto too dense or stupid to see it too.

"Don't give me that bullshit, you know why. She's had a crush on me for some time now. You being one of the biggest gossips in Konoha probably knew longer than anyone else, and if you didn't Sakura or someone else would have told you."

"You knew and still played dumb?"

"No one told me, so I was able to play dumb. She's not really my type, but I didn't want to break her heart by telling her. I didn't think that she would hold on to those feeling so long."

"Then I have some good news, she isn't anymore. She's dating Kiba, turns out that he's had a thing for her longer than she had for you."

"I know, he asked me why I never noticed her and I told him. He was pissed and I didn't try to stop him when he started to punch. He had every right to be angry with me, he didn't do anything too bad, but I had to rest up for a day or two. He probably told her."

"You're an asshole, you shouldn't have let her continue on like that. If you would have told her yourself, it would have been easier than hearing it from him."

"I know, and for that I'm a coward, but I couldn't bare to do that to her. I do care for her, but not in the way she wanted me to. It was the same thing between Sakura and me." If only for a moment his mask fell, but was back up just as fast. "Since you're here, I assume you ready for bed."

She nodded. "You should lay down first, I'm lighter than you."

He did and shivered. "Damn, all the hay does is make it soft. The floor is fucking freezing." She laid down next to him and found that he wasn't exaggerating. She snuggled up to him and felt the warmth of his body. "Hey Ino, Kyuubi said that you knew how big this room was, why didn't you just say that before?"

He could feel her heartbeat quicken as her chest was against his side. "I wanted to be here with you. When I was sitting with you last night, I felt like I belonged there. I didn't want that time to end. When I found out about Kiku, I thought that she and Kyuubi were the cause. That's why I asked you about our feelings being shared, I wanted to know if it really was her emotion."

"She told me something that made things clear for me, I was happy to be near you when Kyuubi wasn't there, her feelings are directed at him, not you. I guess what I'm saying is that I have feelings for you Naruto, I'm not sure if this is love, but what I do know is that this is nothing like how I felt towards Sasuke during the academy."

"I'm at least grateful for that." A small smile crept to her face and she playfully hit him on the chest. "I have to admit, I felt the same way last night and I do now as well. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that Baa-san agreed to let you come with me. It would have been only me and the damn fox and we would probably have never found the one person who could make us both happy."

"Ino, that 'diet' your on, you need to stop it. You're going to be malnourished and I honestly don't understand why you would want to starve yourself."

"Guys want skinny girls."

Naruto laughed. "No they don't, or at least I don't. I want someone I can hold without having to worry about hurting her. Guys don't want girls that are as thin as posts. Some might, but the ones I know don't."

"For you, I'll do it." Naruto smiled and wrapped his arm around her before falling asleep.

------------------------

The next morning when Naruto woke up, he found Ino lying almost completely on top of him. While he could think of a coupled things he could do in this situation, he was content to stay still and admire her beauty a while longer. **'I don't understand you Kit, why don't you tell her what you think about her?'**

'If I rush things, I might scare her off.'

**'After what the two of you have been through already, I doubt she'd be scared off by you admitting you lover her.'**

'I guess you have a point. We have eight days including today before we're supposed to be back in Konoha.'

**'And you will be, but you'll also be training here all eight days While you work on your physical strength, your clones will learn from the weapon summoning scroll and learn the jutsu I used to carry your message.'**

'So you're finally going to tell me what it is?'

**'No, because there is no name for it, or at least not one I can recall.'**

'Then we'll just have to come up with a new one.' He felt Ino start to move and wrapped his arms around her. When he did, her eyes shot open. "Morning beautiful."

She blushed at his comment. "Morning, you just wake up?"

"Nah, I've been up for a little bit."

"Why didn't you get me up?"

"You looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you up, I was also talking with Kyuubi and, of course, I just had to enjoying the breath taking view." Her blush deepens and he smiles. "Come on, we should get up before our furry friends get upset and give us headaches from hell."

She laughed as they headed to the main chamber for a light breakfast before training. When they started training, they put some distance between them and followed the instructions of their demons, until Ino noticed that Naruto had a clone reading a scroll near the entryway. "Naruto, what's the point of having a clone read the scroll, you'll just have t later."

He looked a little surprised for a moment. "I can't believe I forgot to tell you. Kage Bunshin are special not only because they're solid, but also in that when they're dispelled, all the knowledge they had is passed to the user of the jutsu. You can have them practice techniques, with enough clones, you could master things that would take years in months."

"Is that how you learned Rasengan so fast?"

"If I had known, I might have been able to master it in the three days I originally told Obaa-san I could. No, Ero-sennin didn't tell me until about a week after we left, it did help me learn to make the Rasengan in one hand though." The clone behind him disappeared in smoke and Naruto paled slightly. "Well at least I'll know that I won't forget where I put it."

"What's that mean?"

"He wants me to seal the sword on me instead of in a scroll that could be lost or stolen. He made some other points too, but the only reason I'm going to do this is because another down side to scrolls is the amount of time it takes to get them out and unseal something."

"Naruto, you have clones in the armory again don't you?" He nodded in response. "Could you tell me if they find more weights, Kiku wants me to work on my speed."

"Sure." He gave her a foxy grin and they went back to their training. When they sat down for dinner, Naruto had the name of his sword written in ink on his leftt arm and both Ino and himself looked exhausted. "Damn that bastard, the sealing hurt like hell." A clone came running down the hall and handed Naruto a scroll before disappearing. He opened it and started reading.

"What that one for?"

"Gravity Seals, according to this, they work kind of like weights except they're quicker to release the weight. They basically trick your mind and body into thinking that you weight more than you actually do, making it work harder to compensate, and thus making your muscle stronger. It also seems that they'll fade into your skin so no one will know you have them until you take them off or change the field again, problem being that they have to be placed on every part of the body that you want it to affect. The biggest seal goes on the chest to affect the torso and another on the back, otherwise they're all fairly small, total amount is ten unless you only want to work the bottom half of your body."

"Why can't you just have them on your arms and not the chest or back?"

"It doesn't say, but if I had to guess, because your brain thinks your arms weight more, a lot more stress would be placed on your back. And if you were to place one on your back too, you could break your back by not having a counter balance on your chest."

"But you said the extra weight isn't real."

"It's not, but like he said earlier Ino, your mind and body think it is, so it will react as if it was." She glared at Tobi. "You're just embarrassed that you would have to be almost naked for them to be placed."

"If that's what this is about Ino, it doesn't have to be me, Kiku could put them on as easily if not easier than me. While we're on the subject, I would like to get a look at the seal that contains Kiku, to see why you didn't get any of the attributes that most demon vessels get, like the large chakra reserves or any visual characteristic like my whisker marks. Problem being we don't know where it's at and the easiest way is…" He closed his eyes and braced for pain. "For you to be naked a channel chakra though your whole body."

"Does every suggestion you make have to end with me getting naked? And I was actually starting to think that you weren't a pervert like your last two senseis."

"I don't like the idea anymore than you do." He stopped for a second under her glare. "Okay, I maybe I do like it a little more than you, but that doesn't make me pervert, it makes me a straight guy and I'd appreciate it if you didn't do anything rash because I rather like the idea of having kids. And like I said it can be Kiku, but if it's in an appropriate place I would like to look, because it's easier to know what a seal does by looking at it than it being described."

"I can't believe I'm doing this, but fine. We'll do it in the morning though, I doubt I could even gather enough chakra at the moment." She got up and left with a dark blush on her face.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Sorry for taking so long to update, but before I start, I'd like to address a review left by an anon. person that left the name nouk. This is what he wrote: _it's a copy of karkens ghost's foxhound by the way... except for thedemon thing. but it can be improved , the grammer is not up to the mark, but continue anyway, i want to see where this is going_. Now the way it sound is that he/she is going to keep reading, so I'm doing this now since I can't reply normally and I want to clear this up with him/her and everyone else who read the review or not. I admit I got some ideas from karkens ghost's story, namely Ino going to Kakashi for advice, what he said, the first jutsu she learned being the grand fireball (**Which I called by the wrong name in chpt. 3)**, Lee being on their team, and probably the thing about Jiraiya and Kakashi using their perverseness as a cover for wanting to be with someone they can't have. I said probably because it's been a while since I read Foxhound, and I remember reading something like that somewhere. Before I forget I got the idea of Kyuubi in a Kage Bunshin for a different story, Redemption I think, but in that he's always a small fox. Other than that I think I do a rather good job of keeping all my stories as different as possible, and even try not use the same idea in any of my others. **(Which is really difficult considering I have about a dozen.) **As for the grammar, I've never been very good at proper writing. Well that's it enjoy!

**Chapter 12:**

Day Seven:

Naruto and Ino were lying in different rooms, striped down to their underwear, (Ino also having to be topless) trying to ignore the coldness of the floor and tickling of the ink brushes. "Alright Ino, I'm finished on the front, stand up so I can do the back." Getting up carefully so as not to smear the ink, Ino stands there while Kiku starts working on the last seal. "I still don't see why you were so embarrassed about Naruto doing this, it's not like he won't see it sooner or later.

Ino's face went scarlet. "K… Kiku!"

"What, it's true. You know you want him to, and you want to see him. There, finished, now just channel chakra through you whole body and it will activate. We'll probably also find the seal too." Ino nodded and formed the ram seal gathering her chakra. The seals started to glow light blue and sprouted off vines that wove around her body, creating a web-like design that connected all the seals together. All the vines then receded to the seals and with a flash of violet, the seals faded into her skin, leaving her to collapse on to her knees panting.

"Did you see the seal Kiku?"

"Yes, and you'll be happy to know that Naruto will be able to take a look without you striping."

"Good, cause I'm too tired to do anything. The seals took a lot of chakra." As she said this, she pulled one of Naruto's white T-shirt on that almost reached her knees.

"Let's go see how the guys are faring, you can even get a peek at Naruto, and _if_ they ask, we'll say I'm taking you to bed."

Kiku saw just how tired Ino was because she only had a small smile. "Sounds good, and bed sound greats right now.

Naruto & Kyuubi:

Kyuubi had just started on the chest seal. "You should have pushed harder to applying the seals yourself kit."

"Yeah, and have her think I'm a pervert more than she already does."

"I don't think she would care much, hell she might even be disappointed you didn't try harder."

"Why the hell would she be disappointed? If she wanted me to, she wouldn't have said anything last night."

"She's obviously self-conscious about her body, or she wouldn't have been on that 'diet' to begin with kit. She may be laying in there thinking you don't want to see her body."

"You think she wants me to be a pervert?"

"How can you possibly be this dumb? I'm saying she wants you to look at her."

"How's that different from what I said?" By now Kyuubi _really_ wished he could strangle the blond, but if he did, he'd either be sent back to the seal, or go to far and kill them both. Instead he stopped brushing and hit the blonde on the head. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For being an idiot. She wants you to look at her and only her dumb ass. It's not perversion if they want you to, and she probably wants to know if you find her desirable. Now stand up so I can put the last one on."

Kyuubi quickly finished the last seal and Naruto gathered the chakra to activate the seals. They reached across his skin to the others in a web-like design before retreating and glowing red before disappearing from sight. He remained standing, but he was breathing heavily. "I must have come a long ways if that left even you panting. Nice pink pock-a-dots by the way."

"They use to be red, and of course you've come a long way, I've been helping you. So, what about Kiku's seal?"

"It's on the back of her neck, just below the hairline."

"Then I'll be able to take a look at it, but right now, I think it's best if we rest, Ino looks like she's about to pass out, and I'm not much better off."

"We were just on our way there actually, but seeing as how you are, and that Kyuubi and I need to talk about your training, could you take her Naruto?" He nods and wraps his arm around her waist while she put hers over his shoulder, both blushing like mad. When they were out of sight, Kiku turned back to Kyuubi and spoke quietly. "How'd it go?"

"He's dense as hell, but I'm pretty sure I got the point across, at least to the point where he tell her how he feels. You?"

"Embarrassed the hell out of her, but that's it. So, on to step two?"

"Of course." Both demons were smiling as their forms shifted and their positions were reversed.

"You foxes and your tricks." Both turned to find Tobi sitting against the wall next to the caves exit. "I'm not going to say anything to them, but isn't that a little underhanded?"

"We prefer cunning, and we're just speeding things along. They both know they want to, but their both too dense to admit that the other wants the same, so we're trying to get one of them to confess. Chances are it will be the kit since he never really thinks before he speaks, so he'll probably blurt it out."

Down the hallway, Naruto stopped dead, his face bright red and a small trickle of blood coming from his nose. It was taking all of his will power to keep the perverted smile off of his face. Ino was just now realizing he had stopped. "Naruto, are you all right?"

"Fine."

"Then why are you bleeding, and why's your face so red?"

"Well, um… You see…"

"Just spite it out."

"I think the foxes changed places before the sealing, because I have images in my head that shouldn't be there."

"Is that right?" He nodded and cringed in preparation of the pain he was sure would come. So you can imagine his surprise when he heard her sigh. "Not much we can do about it now. I could go into your head and destroy them, but since they're Kyuubi's memories to begin with, he could just keep replacing them so it's pointless." Naruto's face was like that of a fish. "What's your problem now?"

"That's it, you're not going to yell, scream, or hit me?"

"Why would I?"

"I've more or less seen you topless and I know for experience that women beat most guys that see them like that." She glared at him to which he added. "I've had to drag Ero-sennin back to the hotel after most of his 'research' trips to the bathhouses."

"You said it yourself, women beat _most_ guys, and since it wasn't really you, I'll let it slide this time. You'll lose what makes you a man next time. Got it?" She said this all in a sweet and innocent voice causing him to gulp and nod quickly. "Good, now let hurry to the room and rest while we can."

------------------------

Naruto wasn't there when she woke up and she went looking for him, heading to the main chamber first. She found Tobi with his back to her, in front of a fire. "Hey Tobi, have you seen Naruto?"

He didn't turn around when he answered. "Around five or ten minutes ago, but only briefly. He sent some Kage Bunshin into the armory and went back that way, figured he was going to get you for training."

"Thanks Tobi."

"Not a problem Ino." She turned around and instead of going back to the bedchamber, she went left to the hot spring. She couldn't help but gap at the size of this chamber, it was only smaller than the training room, and most of it was the spring. From what she could see, the water came up to her belly button while standing and just under her shoulders sitting on the foot and a half tall bench. Naruto sat not too far from the doorway, his arms resting on the ledge of the spring and the cord she knew was attached to his amulet easily visible around his neck.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Hey Ino, have a nice rest?"

Ino quickly noticed that while the water wasn't murky, that she could only see a dark outline of his body under the water. "It was fine, but you could have woke me up when you did."

He turned back around. "Yeah, but you were worse off from the seals than I was, so I figured you'd need more time to recuperate. So you gonna join me or were you just looking to try and get even?"

"I don't know, you promise not to peep?"

"I promise I won't do it on purpose. Despite what everyone seems to think, I'm not a pervert like Ero-sennin."

"Says the boy who created the Oiroke no jutsu."

"It's true, in fact I ruined most of his 'research' trips while we were away, which is why his next book won't be out for another year." A scared look crossed his face. "But don't tell anyone in Konoha that, Kakashi and quite a few other men would try to kill me."

"Fine, but you come within three feet of me, you're leaving here a girl." Naruto paled and nodded before turning away from her. She took off Naruto's oversized shirt and her panties before slipping into the water. She sat down on the bench, her back resting against the side and her arms on the ledge of the pool. "You can turn back now if you want." He did just that, but didn't turn to face her, instead he stared off towards the other end of the chamber with a content smile. "What's with the smile?"

"It's just nice to be able to relax for once, I haven't been able to completely let go in a long time." Ino was starting to get a bit worried, he wasn't acting like he usually did. It was like he was a completely different person from when they left. Everything that one would normally associate with Naruto didn't fit the person in front of her.

"Naruto, are you all right? You're not acting like you normally do."

He snorted. 'You have no idea how accurate that statement is Ino.' She looked at him curiously. "It's nothing."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that. Naruto, what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?"

"You're sudden change, it's like you're not the same person anymore."

Naruto closed his eyes and chuckled. 'So perceptive it's annoying sometimes.' His smiled faded as he turned his head to face her. "You may or may not have noticed that what you said could have more than one meaning. That my behavior is strange for me, that I might not feel well, or that I'm not acting." He saw the confusion on her face and decided to continue to explain. "I told you before we left that people tend to see the person I pretend to be, when I said that, I wasn't just talking about the fake smiles or hidden emotion. Despite what people think, I'm not the idiot I make myself out to be. If I were, I wouldn't have learned Rasengan or Kage Bunshin as fast as I did. Most people probably think it was luck."

"Which raises the question, why pretend to be an idiot if you already have a way to hide your emotions?"

"If I hadn't, more people would have considered me a threat, while in most case the strong last longer than the weak, as with everything else in my life, the rules are different for me. Had I tried, I would have been somewhere in the top ten of the class." She gave him a disbelieving look. "Every time it looked like I was sleeping, or just not paying attention, I was taking in every word. When it was time to perform jutsu, I would clown around to make it seem like that's what I wanted." A small smile spread across his face. "Through I did enjoy doing some of them."

"So you messed up the Bunshin on purpose?"

He scratched his cheek and his smile became an embarrassed one. "Actually no, I just can't do it. I have too much chakra and didn't have enough control to use such a small amount, so I flood the jutsu and they appear looking sickly or dead. I still don't have enough control, not that I need the jutsu anymore."

"What about the Chunin exam? Both fights seemed like they were made up as you went along, are you saying that was an act too?"

"There's a difference between knowing how to use something and using it effectively. Back then I knew the importance of strategy, but didn't have the knowledge to use it effectively, so I improvised. When traveling with Jiraiya-sensei, I had that knowledge beat into my head, of course even then my plans are no where near as thorough as Shikamaru, or even Temari from what I saw in their match. As for the written test I knew I couldn't answer the questions, but with no way to cheat without being noticed, I placed all my hope on the last question and left the others blank."

She started to laugh. "That was you?" He nodded and her laughter increased. "The head proctor of that test, Ibiki, works with my dad sometimes, and he told my dad that you were an interesting guy, which normally isn't a good thing when it comes from Ibiki."

"He's not such a bad guy, even if he does take a bit too much pleasure from his job." He turned his head slightly towards her. "So you want me to look at the seal today?"

She shrugged her shoulders. 'Sure, when you want to do it?"

"I could right now if you want, but I'd have to come within three feet of you."

He smiled when a blush appeared on her face. "I guess you could, but you touch anything aside from where the seal is and I'll neuter you, got it?" For added effect she used a bit of Kiku's chakra, turning her eyes purple and he nodded smile still in place. She turned so her legs were up on the stone bench as he made his way over to her.

He sat behind her and brushed her hair over her shoulder, being sure to keep his hand above the water as he did so. His smile widened as he did so because he could feel her hawk-like gaze following his hand until he pulled it back to him. "You're going to have to channel a bit of chakra so I can see it." She nodded and in a matter of seconds, he watched as a seal about the size of his palm appeared, and his smile faded. "Well this is interesting, it's similar to mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Well it has eight points, and from what sensei told me about mine that's what allows Kyuubi's yokai to mix with mine. But the containment seal is completely different." The seal looked kind of like a yin-yang, except there's no circle on either side, one half was light blue, the other dark violet, and in the center of the circle is the kanji for seal. "It's high quality, that's for sure, but nowhere near Yondaime or Jiraiya-sensei's level. But it's this seal on top of it that I find the most interesting, the closest thing I've seen to it is a seal tag Jiraiya-sensei made to..." Naruto eyes widened.

"To what? What's wrong?"

"He made it to suppress Kyuubi's yokai, so when I trained to use it he could stop me if it got out of control. If this seal is like that one, it will act like a dam, stopping almost all flow. I'm not really sure if the tag sensei made absorbed the access or sent it back to the seal, but it brought it back to the normal level. This one's make up is different, so I have no idea what will happen when it's released, it could flood your body with yokai, or it could release it gradually like it was supposed to from the beginning. The problem with yokai is that it's poisonous to humans, that why a newborn is needed because over time their bodies will adapted to it, that is if the sudden addition doesn't kill them first, because you're able to use a full tail, I would think that you would be fine, but we can't be sure."

"Say we remove it, what would happen if I wasn't ready?"

"At best, severe case of chakra poisoning, at worst, death or the end of your kunoichi career, which ever you think would be worse."

"Are you saying that death isn't as bad as not being a ninja?"

"For me yeah."

"How can you say that?! Is your dream so damn important to you that you'd give up anything for it?!"

"It's not like that Ino!" He sighed and looked down at the water. "If you, or any other one of our group for that matter, were to ever decide that a ninja's life isn't what you want, you have something else to fall back on. Almost everyone, you included, is a clan heir or heiress and most of your families have side businesses you could work at, with you it's the flower shop, Tenten has her family's weapon shop, Sakura could be a full time nurse or probably doctor at the hospital. Neji and Sasuke, if he doesn't rot in a cell, would never think of being anything else, but they both have their clan names, which from previous experience shows they hold a lot of sway. Lee, even though the only way he wouldn't continue being a shinobi is if he was completely paralyzed, could start a dojo with Gai if he wanted. But me, the only thing I know how to be is a shinobi. I'm a nobody, hated by the vast majority of the village, the only work I could probably get in Konoha would be being an assistant to Iruka-sensei or Kaa-san." Ino opened her mouth to speak, but he continued before she could. "If one of you guys managed to convinced your families to give me a job, you'd lose business because of me."

"That wasn't want I was going to say, it's just that you said Kaa-san, and now that I think about it, ever since you started acting different… stopped acting… uh whatever you've said either sensei or Jiraiya-sensei, you never call them those."

"This is the first time I've completely dropped the mask since Ojii-san died. Even when I was traveling with Jiraiya-sensei I left it partially up, mainly because I doubt the reasons he gave me about why he's teaching me."

"You should just be glad he's training you, I mean he is a Sannin, who cares why he's doing it?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful he's training me, I just don't want it to be because I'm the container of Kyuubi, but I think it's really because I remind him of someone."

"What makes you think that?"

"He's called me Minato on more than one occasion, and he didn't seem to realize it. It's like I'm a replacement for this Minato guy to him, and Kaa-san does the same with her younger brother, she doesn't see me the same way I do her, that's the reason why I still use the nicknames I gave them when we met. Being a replacement is worse than being alone, you may have people who want you around, but you're still not seen or acknowledged." Naruto stood and turned towards the edge of the hot spring. "I'm going to train." As he said this he step onto the stone bench and Ino threw her arms over her eye while a blush was on her cheeks.

"Naruto! A little warning next time!"

Naruto just laughed. "Relax Ino, it's not like I'm naked, I planned on having a soak remember. I figured you might come and join me, so I wore shorts." She slowly uncovered one eye to see he actually was wearing a pair of now soaked black shorts that ended at his knees. He grabbed one of the two towels, something she hadn't noticed when she came in, and wrapped it around his waist. "You shouldn't stay in there too much longer, the heat can really mess with your head. There's a towel over here for you when you decide to get out."

He quickly went back to the bedchamber and changed into orange pants and a black sleeveless shirt, before heading to the large chamber they had been using for training. With a long sigh, he made the ram seal and two seals appeared on his arms, they glowed light blue and there was a barely visible glow from beneath his shirt as well. When the glow died off, his whole body slumped over, with a groan he straightened up and made a cross seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A group of a hundred clones appeared in a massive cloud of smoke. He left his hands in the seal, but crossed his fingers. "Kage Kitsune no Jutsu." In another small cloud Kyuubi appeared.

"Finally starting to use the seals I see. So, how many do you want?"

"I'll take half, the other half can go with you, divide them how you want, have them continue working the that transport jutsu and anything else you think could be useful." Kyuubi nodded and waved for his section of clones to follow to the far side of the chamber. The sword's seal glowed when he placed his hand over it and with a pop and a puff of smoke, Youkou Shikon was in his right hand. He steadily walked towards his group of clones. "Well, what are you waiting for, a written invitation?" He stood there as the clones surrounded him, and smiled a smile so evil it would make Kyuubi proud. "This is gonna be fun." He grabbed the hilt in both hands as the first wave of clones rushed him.

--------------------------

Ino had left the hot spring shortly after Naruto and turned on her seals as soon as she was done changing into a sleeveless purple button up shirt that didn't cover her stomach, and a pair matching of bicycle shorts, and put her hair in a ponytail. Despite the added weight, she found that she quickly adapted to it and was moving a bit more easily than when she first activated the seals. She walked through the main chamber without seeing Tobi, which was odd as that was where he was any other time, but shrugged it off and continued to the training chamber, Aijin Yaiba in hand. As she entered the room, she couldn't help but stop and stare, as single Naruto in the middle of a large group of look-a-likes, that she was sure was the real one, destroyed ten or so charging clones with basic swings of his massive sword.

When the last of the first wave of clones were gone, Naruto held the sword in his left hand with the edge pointing upwards and the remaining clones tightened the circle around him at a quick rate. Some of the clones had pulled out kunai, a few had copies of Youkou Shikon, but most were unarmed. He stabbed his blade into one such clone, the blade was slanted so the edge was pointed up towards the left shoulder. Before the clone could disappear, Naruto released the handle and spun to the left knocking aside a kunai being stabbed at his back while using his momentum to pull the sword through the clone with his right hand, ripping it free and followed through with the swing to cut through the collar bone of the clone he had just blocked. He turned to block a swing from one of the copy swords, before sidestepping another kunai thrust that instead hit the clone with the sword. Naruto pushed a small amount of chakra into the blade as he swung it, the red aura around it flew off in a wave, cutting down the twelve clones in its way and faded from lack of energy. The cloud of smoke created by their demise obscured Ino's view of the fight, but she was able to hear the sounds of metal hitting metal, and another ten clones be destroyed.

When the smoke cleared, the remaining fifteen clones stood fairly close together, but left more than enough space for them to move around easily. Naruto stood not five feet from them, his sword not visible, but its seal glowing blue, and his hands moving into the seals, Bunta, Usagi, Saru, Uma, and then he just disappeared. There were flashes of red within the group of clones as well as the sound of something cutting through the air at high speeds, and then he reappeared on the other side of the group, kneeling on his left leg, left hand against the ground in front of it, and his right was stretched out behind him with his sword glowing red. As he stood, the clones all popped, once again blanketing the area in smoke. When the smoke had again cleared, his sword had been returned to its seal and he was walking towards Ino. "Hey Ino, have you turned on your seals yet?"

"Yeah. I sure you did too, but Naruto, how could you have gotten so fast so quickly?"

"Oh that, that was a jutsu Kyuubi taught me while I was sleeping last night, he showed me the seals and explained how it worked, but I wasn't able to try it till now. It's called Shunpo."

--------------------------

**Shunpo- Flash Step (Not a Bleach crossover. It's not the same as theirs because as far as I know it's meant for traveling, not for attacking, but the name was the only thing that fit. The jutsu will be explained more in next chapter.)**


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh that, that was a jutsu Kyuubi taught me while I was sleeping last night, he showed me the seals and explained how it worked, but I wasn't able to try it till now. It's called Shunpo."

**'How appropriate. You should see if he'll teach it to you Ino, even with the speed training you're getting from the seals, that jutsu would be perfect for the style I'm going to teach you.'**

'Okay, I'll ask him.' "Hey Naruto, would you mind teaching it to me, Kiku said that it would be perfect for the Kenjutsu style I'm going to learn."

Naruto's smile nearly split his face. "Of course I will, I was going to ask if you wanted to learn it anyway, but first you should let Kiku out and make some Kage Bunshin." A blue fire appear five feet from them and out of it came one of Naruto's clones, who made a silly face with his tongue sticking out at the original before dispersing when a kunai was sent his way. Ino giggled as Naruto sighed. "Whenever I make a large amount, there's always at least one like that, they never do what their told, sensei said they were anomalies or something like that."

Ino giggled again. "Seems to me like they're perfect clones, and all of the others are anomalies." She followed his suggestion of letting Kiku out and creating shadow clones, which was the highest amount she had made yet at twenty-five. They then went to the far side of the chamber. "So how does it work?"

"It takes a lot of chakra, so it can only be done in sort bursts, but what you do is while making the hand signs Bunta, Usagi, Saru, and then Uma, you focus chakra all around your body. The chakra speeds up not just your body, but your mind too so it can keep up and process what your eyes see, if it didn't I would think you wouldn't see anything until several seconds after you pass it by. I have no proof or anything, but this could be the jutsu that inspired the Hiraishin no Jutsu, though because of the stories about that jutsu it either takes less chakra to use, or the Yondaime had extraordinarily massive chakra reserves. Anyways, you want to give it a try?"

She smiled evilly and it sent a shiver up Naruto's spine. "Sure."

Naruto formed a cross with the index and middle fingers on each hand. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In a small cloud of smoke, there were two lines of six clones parallel to each other with four feet of space between each clone. "There you go." She smiled at him and tossed Aijin Yaiba into the air and formed the hand signs as it started its descent. The sword disappeared from the air and reappeared in her right hand, its sheath in her left, and then she disappeared as well. There were flashes of purple throughout the group of clones, and after a few seconds they went up in smoke one by one, but Ino didn't reappear on the other side, instead Naruto felt her standing back to back with him, her blade sheathed again. He smiled widely. "I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that. You've got really good with that sword in the short amount of time you've had it." His shirt fell to the ground, cut on the tops of both shoulders, and down the center of the front and back, with not a mark on him. "Though if you wanted my shirt off, all you had to do was ask." Ino whacked him upside the head with her sheath, while her cheeks turned red.

------------------------

After training, Naruto and Ino made their way to the main chamber with the two kitsune behind them. **"Your clones have mastered the transportation jutsu, and are progressing quickly with the others, but I'm running out of things to teach them. I may have lived for thousands of years, but I didn't particularly care about things that you humans knew."**

Naruto shrugged. "Just means more time devoted to physical training."

Ino shook her head. "I swear all you ever think of is food and training."

"That's not true, it's just what I think about most often, can't live without food, and I have to train if the leader of Akatsuki is as strong as Tobi says."

They walked into the chamber to find it empty and Kyuubi's eyes narrowed. **"Where is he anyway, I haven't seen him since you sent clones to the armory this morning."**

"He's been in the armory with my clones all day, not really sure what he's looking for though."

"Look what I found!" Tobi came running into the chamber with what looked like two small square piece of paper in his hand. He handed one to each of them. "Here, push chakra into them."

Ino looked over the paper intently. "What are they?"

Naruto looked from the paper to Tobi. "Are these chakra papers?" The masked man nodded excitedly. Ino looked at him curiously. "Chakra paper is made from a tree grown with a constant exposure to chakra. They're used to identify a person's chakra affinity, Jiraiya-sensei told me that we'd test mine before the third year was over. He wasn't able to return to Konoha with me, so I never got the chance."

"Okay, so how do they work?"

The two blonds could hear the excitement in Tobi's voice when he spoke. "You push chakra into them and it will react in a different way for each element. Some chunin and almost every jonin has at least two, Kage normally have three, once and a while you'll find someone with four, and sometimes, though it is incredibly rare, someone will have all five." Tobi was practically bouncing up and down by this point. "So, come on, let's see what you've got." Ino looked over at Naruto to find him with the paper held between his pointer and middle fingers and focusing completely on it. The paper looked as though it had gone through a blender. Tobi cocked his head to the side. "That's strange, I'd have never thought you'd have such a strong wind affinity. Your turn Ino."

Naruto turned to her with a smile. "Yeah, come on Ino, let's see what you got." Following Naruto's example, she pushed chakra into her piece of paper and it damn near exploded in her hand. "Well that explains how you got Gokakyu no Jutsu so quickly, jutsu with an element that you're aligned with will be easier to learn than the others, but you'll have the hardest time with water jutsu, since they oppose your element."

Tobi nodded his head in agreement. "I can show you the first step in learning how to use you elemental chakra tomorrow if you'd like me to."

Naruto shook his head. "I can't tomorrow sorry, there's something I need to take care of."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Come on Naruto, just tell us, no need to be vague."

Naruto sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of answering. "Each summoning contract has a Boss summon, and each Boss has a test of sorts for initiation of new signers. I made a promise to Gamabunta, the Boss Toad summon, that I'd finish my initiation before my three years with Jiraiya-sensei were up, and I'm running out of time."

"See that's wasn't so hard, so what do you have to do?"

Naruto smiled mischievously. "Sorry, can't say, it's a secret kept between signers and their summons." Again Ino rolled her eyes, but she didn't press the matter.

--------------------------

**Day Nine: Seven pm**

Ino sat in the main chamber trying her best to ignore the popping sounds continually coming from the training chamber. Tobi came out of the armory and sent a look towards the chamber. Ino looked at him, gone were the cloak and black shirt beneath, and in their stead was a skintight sleeveless blue shirt. She frowned a little at the fact that his mask was still in place, they had spent nearly a week with the man and had yet to see his face. "He's still at it huh?"

Ino sighed. "Yeah, I really wish he'd give it a rest already, he's been at it since he got back, and it's really starting to get annoying. What could have gotten him so worked up?"

Tobi seemed to look off into space in something resembling a thinking pose. "He may have failed his test and had his contract with the Toads terminated. From the information Akatsuki gathered, he's made several strong bonds with members of the Toads, and is one of a select few to have been given the honor of riding atop Gamabunta's head, two of the better known ninja in that group are Jiraiya of the Sannin, and the Yondaime Hokage. To lose those bonds he's made over the course of three years would be devastating to all of them." The ear splitting sound of a huge quantity of clones being destroyed at once interrupted them and then there was silence.

After nearly ten minutes of silence, Naruto had yet to come out and Ino was starting to get worried. After several more minutes of silence without any sign of Naruto, Ino went in to check on him. She found him face down on the floor, his clothes were now rags. She ran over to him and rolled him over gently, he had minor cuts that were slowly healing all across his body. **'He seems to have taken quite a beating, perhaps he was knocked unconscious, that would explain why all the clones disappeared at once.'**

Ino snorted. 'With a head his hard it's more likely he worked himself to exhaustion, though I've didn't think his stamina would run out so quickly.' She sighed. 'I guess I should get him to where we're sleeping.' She made the hand sign for Kage Bunshin, and another Ino appeared next to her. They each placed one of Naruto's arms over their shoulders, and one of their own around his back to get him to his feet. Despite the weight from both of their seals, Ino got Naruto to the bed chamber quickly and laid him down. Immediately afterwards, her clone dispersed and she turned to leave.

"Sorry about making you carry me Ino, I guess I got a little carried away." She turned back to find his eyes were barely open, and hadn't moved from where she'd placed him, showing he was fighting to stay conscious.

"Don't worry about it, everyone's got to blow off steam sometime, especially if Tobi's guess is right and you failed your test with the toads."

Naruto let out a light laughter. "No I didn't fail. The truth of the matter is I passed the day I first summoned Gamabunta, I just had to do one final task to make it official."

"Then why'd you work yourself to exhaustion?"

Naruto looked away. "I'm sorry Ino, but I'd rather not talk about till I know for certain." Ino nodded and left him to rest. Naruto stared up at the stone ceiling for several minutes before sleep took him with one question on his mind. 'Why didn't you tell me Kaa-san, Jiraiya-sensei?'

-----------------------------

Ino stood in the Training chamber with her eyes closed, Tobi not ten feet from her, with a leaf held between her hands, smoke coming up off it, and a small hole through the center with red embers round the edges of the hole. The hole wasn't extending towards the sides of the leaf and Ino had sweat on her forehead, her face scrunched up in concentration. A small device in Tobi's hand started to beep, and he hit a button silencing it. "Great job Ino, you were able to hold it for an hour straight. You should rest up, you look exhausted. We'll start the next step tomorrow."

She nodded and started toward the sleeping chamber, before she even made it to the turn off for the bathing chamber, she felt her legs give out from under her. Inside of falling to the ground though, she felt herself wrapped up by two arms. Looking up, she found herself staring into the startling cerulean eyes of her fellow blonde. "Looks like I'm not the only one to over do it during training." He helped her to her feet, but didn't let go.

Ino blushed when she realized not only this, but also the fact that her eyes were still locked on to his. She quickly looks away slightly. "Thanks Naruto, but you know you can let me go now."

Naruto chuckled lightly and shook his head. "You carried me, it's only fair that I return the favor." She opened her mouth to protest, but she stopped, knowing he wouldn't change his mind. He smiled when he saw her give in and helped her down the hallway.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring up into the clear blue sky and the smell of flowers all around her. **"Ino, there's something I wish to speak to you about. Please come to me." **Ino pushed herself up to her feet, finding herself on a hillside covered in roses of every natural color and violets. At the top of the hill was a sakura tree in full bloom, and in the distance was a feudal castle with tall outer walls and a metal bar gate instead of a solid wooden one. She made her way towards the gate, behind it laid Kiku in her fox form. **"I'm sorry for pulling you in here while you were resting Ino."**

"It's alright Kiku, so what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"**It's about your relationship with Naruto."** The kitsune saw Ino sigh and gave the blond an apologetic look. **"I know you don't want to talk about it again, but I feel I must tell you why I've been pushing the idea of mating with him."** The blond looked up at the kitsune curiously and Kiku took a deep breath before continuing. **"As I'm sure you know, I was pregnant when I was sealed within you."** Ino nodded. **"What you don't know, is that I was only days away from giving birth and when I was sealed, my soul wasn't the only one to be removed."**

Ino's mouth hung open and her eyes were wide with shock. "You mean that your children were sealed in me as well?"

**"In a sense yes, but at the same time they are not. Since they were never born, their souls are within mine. It's like they were sealed into me before I was sealed in you."**

"Okay, I understand that, but what does that have to do with me sleeping with Naruto?"

**"He is the container of their father, and I believe that if the two of you were to conceive a child, the soul of one of our children will essentially be born along with yours'."**

"You mean like twins?"

**"It's possible, but there are three other possibilities as well. The two souls could merge into one creating a kitsune-human hybrid, or that they will be two separate entities that share a single body similar to how we do, except without a seal. However I've never heard of anything like this happening before so it's also possible that my children will never be born."**

"How many children were you going to have and have you told Kyuubi about this?"

**"Only two of them were sealed, so I assume either that any others were stillborns or that was all you could handle. And no I haven't told him, I don't think I could handle it if I told him only to find out later that it isn't possible. Please don't tell him or Naruto till we know for sure."**

"Alright, but how will we know when the time comes?"

Kiku gave a fox's equivalent to a smirk when Ino blushed realizing what she had said. **"I'm able to feel them within me as I could before."**

**-----------------------------**

When she woke up, she found herself laying on her side, her back pressed up against Naruto's chest and his arms wrapped protectively around her, his face buried in her hair. She smiled as she turned around in his embrace and snuggled closer to him while wrapped her arms around him as well. She was caught by surprise though when he rolled on to his back, pulling her on top of him. "You know Ino, if I were somebody else, I would probably take advantage of this situation."

"But if you were somebody else, we wouldn't be in this situation. So how long were you planning to let me think you were asleep?"

"Why, were you going to do something?"

"Oh you know me, I just woke up and saw you lying there and thought 'I should have my way with him right now.'"

A smile found its way onto his lips. "I'm sorry I'm so irresistible Ino, had I known I'd have never put you in this situation." She smacked him lightly on the chest as he laughed and after a little bit she started to as well. When they both calmed down, Naruto let out a sigh. "As much as I'd like to just lay here, it's time to get up and train, we only have a few more days before we have to head back to the village." Ino groaned, but pushed herself up and grabbed her sword while Naruto got to his feet as well.

They found Tobi standing at the end of the hallway waiting for them. "Are you both ready to start elemental training?"

"I am, Kyuubi said that my clones learned everything faster than he expected them to."

"Me too, Kiku says that my speed isn't quite where it needs to be, but it's getting there. So what are we doing today?"

"Well, you're going to attempt to create fire from chakra, while Naruto tries to cleanly cut the leftover leafs from yesterday down the middle with chakra. And Naruto, no clones, I want you to do it by yourself first. After that they can help you get use to using the natural wind chakra around you."

"How come you didn't let me use them last night then?"

"Because you hadn't gotten that far. There is a different point in each training regimen that you learn to manipulate the element in its natural form. Wind's and water's are the first step, lightning's is the second, Fire's starts in the second and ends in the third, and Earth's is the third. Now come on, we're wasting time." They all continued to the training chamber and Tobi pointed out to Naruto where he could find the leaves. "Naruto, what you are to do is release some of your chakra into the air and make a blade as thin and sharp as you can. When you can cleanly cut the leaf in two you can use Kage Bunshin to help master the exercise. I'll come see how you're doing in a little while." After Naruto left, Tobi turned to Ino. "Alright Ino, you did extremely well yesterday, and today's exercise will be somewhat easier, you'll be pulling heat from an preexisting source to ignite your chakra. I was in here earlier and started a small fire, you'll be using the coals as the heat source."

"Okay, but how do I pull the heat from something?"

"First you form a ball of chakra, not too big of one, you don't want to blow us all up after all, and from that ball make a tendril into the coals. The heat will travel up the tendril to the ball and, if done right, cause it to combust."

"What do you mean 'if done right'?"

"Well there are a few variables that could cause it not to work, but those are for you to figure out, you wouldn't learn anything if I just told you. Same rules apply to you as Naruto. Speaking of who, I'm going to go see if he's made any progress." Ino nodded and turned towards the hot coals. Tobi walked over to where Naruto stood, holding a leaf between his right index and middles fingers.

A barely visible cut appeared on the leaf off center as he reached the blonde. "Tobi isn't this the same thing I did to that piece of paper before?"

"Pretty much, but that paper is designed to amplify the person's chakra so they can identify their affinity, and given your paper's response, I'm surprised you're having such a hard time with this."

"I'm having a problem trying to give it a sharp edge, I can get it paper thin, but I can't make it sharp."

"Then let's try something else, close your eyes and release a small amount of chakra into the air." Naruto did as he was told and Tobi nodded to himself when he felt the chakra. "Good, now can you feel the chakra you released?" He received a nod. "Do you feel something like a tug on your chakra?" Again he got a nod. "That is the wind chakra reacting to yours. Wind is the hardest element to learn to use as you cannot bend it to your will as you can with the other four, you must coax it into doing what you want it to."

"How do I do that?"

"Use your chakra to tug back, but don't be too forceful." Naruto picked up another leaf and moved his chakra though the air towards the leaf, and the leaf split halfway down the center. "Better, keep working at it, you'll get it." Both turned at the sound of a small explosion and saw Ino coughing a bit, her clothes and skin blackened. "Must have used a bit too much chakra in the ball. I better go tell her before she tries again, I'll come back to check your progress later Naruto." The blonde boy looked worriedly over at Ino and nodded. By the end of the day, Naruto, due in a large part to his clones, was able to cleanly split a leaf into fourths in a fraction of a second, and Ino was able to draw the heat out of the coals and ignite the chakra in her hands with ease. The blondes went to sleep in each other's arms, completely exhausted, and knowing the next day would be even more trying as they would learn the next step.


	14. Chapter 14

The next two days of training were spent learning to do the next step of their elemental training, Ino needing to create fire using her body heat as a source, and Naruto, in light of having no waterfall nearby, was made to sit on the far wall of the spring and split the pool without damaging the floor. It is on the twelfth day that we find the two following a nearly bouncing Tobi, looking exhausted. "This is the fastest I've ever heard of someone learning elemental manipulation, even with your clones 'lives' added in."

Naruto smiled at the masked man. "We just have a good teacher."

Ino nodded smiling also. "Yeah, if it weren't for you neither of us would have even gotten started. So what's next sensei?"

"Truthfully, most people stop where you are now simply because you can create flames from practically nothing, and since the wind affinity is so rare, coupled with how difficult it is to use, only the most dedicated or stubborn users ever master it."

Naruto's smile brightened. "Then I have nothing to worry about."

Ino giggled. "Especially since you're both." Tobi shook his head as they continued down the stone hallway with Naruto pouting. After a quick dinner and soak in the hot springs, the two blondes bid Tobi good night and headed off to bed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night, Naruto woke to a bright red light in the small sleeping chamber. He groggily noticed that Ino had her face pressed into his chest, probably to avoid the light. Untangling himself from her, and making sure her head was turned away from the light source, he stood to find out what it was. Rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes he quickly realized that the light wasn't coming from the doorway, but rather some of the symbols on the wall. 'Kyuubi, you awake?'

He heard a sleepy grumble before the demon's voice filled his head. **'What do you want brat, you're not the only one who needs sleep you know.'**

'Sorry, I was just wondering why the symbols on the wall are glowing.'

In the few seconds of silence, Naruto felt a great amount of uneasiness wash over him as he felt Kyuubi's awareness go from nearly nothing to full attention. **'Which symbols are they?'**

'Well, um… there's 'Koki', 'Nan', 'Tounan', 'Inu', and 'Go'. What does this mean Kyuubi?'

**'It means we're going to have to cut this trip short kit. The Gobi is in my territory, and the only reason he would head that direction from where he entered is if he wants to take it for his own.'**

'But wouldn't he have to beat you to take it, isn't that how it works?'

**'Under normal circumstances yes, but ever since you humans learned to seal us away, we decided that should a demon be sealed, the only way for another to take their territory is to finish whatever task the sealed demon was doing when they were sealed. Which means…'**

'Which means he's headed for Konoha.'

**'Exactly. Now even at full speed, it'll take him a day, probably two since he'll likely rest before attacking, before he reaches the village. If you let me out, I'll go ahead and warn Tsunade so she can start mobilizing the other ninja while you get the other two ready to leave.'**

'Not that I'm complaining, but why are you so gung-ho to save the village that sealed you?'

**'Because I will not lose my territory, sealed or not, to that mangy mutt.'**

Naruto made a cross with his crossed fingers. "Kage Kitsune no Jutsu." In a puff of smoke Kyuubi stood there and was gone in a burst of blue flames before the smoke cleared. Kneeling down next to Ino, Naruto gently shook her shoulder. "Ino, you need to get up."

Rolling over on to her back, Ino opened her eyes with a groan. "Naruto? What's with the light?"

"Ino, I need you to get up and get ready to leave, while I get Tobi. We're leaving, tonight."

Ino quickly sat up, all thoughts of sleep gone. "What's happened?"

"Short version, Konoha's in trouble because Gobi's heading their way. Kyuubi thinks that he's head to finish what Kyuubi started, there by taking over Kyuubi's territory. He already went ahead to warn them." Ino nodded and started gathering up their things as Naruto rushed down the hallway. Reaching the main chamber, he could barely see anything due to the red lights of the seals, but he could make out the shape of Tobi laying on the ground. Slowly making his way over as not to trip on anything, he shook the man awake. "Tobi get up, we have to head back to Konoha tonight, we've got a problem."

The man yawned. "You didn't get her pregnant did you, cause if you did, either you're both really quiet, or there are some impressive privacy seals in that room."

A tick appeared over Naruto's left eye. "We haven't done anything like that you perv."

Tobi laid back down. "Then what's the problem?"

"Gobi's heading for Konoha."

In an instant Tobi was standing up. "Are you sure?"

"That's what Kyuubi said."

"You realize this will likely attract some of my former associates don't you? They could try and take you as well as Gobi in the chaos."

"I don't think even they're crazy enough to try and take on the Gobi at full power, they'll most likely wait till someone is forced to use a sealing jutsu on him and take the infant or object."

"And how do you plan to stop them, if they know you're there, they'll send more members to retrieve one, if not both of you."

"Honestly, I don't know, but I'll find a way, because if a child is used, I'll give my life to keep them away from those bastards."

"You'll make a fine Hokage someday Naruto."

"Naruto?"

Naruto turned around and could just barely make out the shape of Ino by the doorway. "You all set Ino?"

"Yeah, I even packed your stuff since you never came back."

"Thanks Ino. Is there anything you want to take Tobi?"

The man bent down and there was a light scraping on the floor before he stood and slipped his mask over his face. "Just this."

Ino made her way over to the two of them and Naruto flipped through a few hand signs. "Grab hold both of you, and be sure not to let go, or who knows where you'll end up." He felt Ino wrap her arms around his chest, her chin resting on his shoulder, while Tobi grabbed hold of his shoulder in a tight, almost painful grip. With a final hand sign, blue flames erupted beneath them and swallowed them up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kyuubi appeared in Tsunade's office to find it deserted, and while he growled in annoyance, he remained calm. Using his kitsune sense of smell, he followed her scent outside of the tower, through town, and to a moderate sized, two storied build surrounded by a large fence. Smelling the Anbu guarding the place, he let a smirk cross his lips and his flashed through the seals for Shunpo. In the blink of an eye, he went from outside the gate to Tsunade's bedroom, where she was, snoring away. 'I would have thought it'd be harder to get this far.'

Walking silently up to her bed, he was about to touch her shoulder when he felt the cold steel of a blade at his neck. "You are good, I'll give you that, but did you honestly think you could kill Hokage-sama in her own home?"

Kyuubi turned his head towards his attack, a man by his voice, wearing a white cloak and a Kuma mask. His red slitted eyes looking into the Anbu's eye slots. "If I had intended to kill her, I would have destroyed the building. I'm here to warn her of an impending attack."

"And how do I know you're not just trying to save your own ass?"

"If you would be so kind as to wake her, she could verify that I mean not harm."

Kuma turned his head so as not to let Kyuubi out of his sight. "Neko, wake Tsunade-sama." He turned his full attention to Kyuubi as the Neko masked Anbu approached the sleeping blonde. "You had best hope you speak the truth."

After a couple of minutes, Tsunade was awake and looking at the Neko Anbu with restrained hate. "What is the meaning of this?"

Neko backed away as Kuma spoke up. "I'm sorry milady, but this intruder claims he brings news of an impending attack, though he snuck passed the guards instead of following normal protocol."

Turning on a bedside lamp, Tsunade caught sight of Kyuubi's face and nearly gasped. "It is alright Anbu, you can stand down, this man means me no harm." Kuma removed his blade. "Leave us, I must speak with him alone." Kuma gave a stiff nod, though his body language showed he wasn't happy about her order. Once every Anbu had left the room, Tsunade turned to Kyuubi with a slight glare. "Now what's this about an impending attack, and damn well better be important, cause demon lord or not, you do not disturb my sleep for something trivial."

The glare and killing intent she focused on him, while not substantial, caused a chill to run down even his spine. "I would not be here if it were something trivial. Gobi is headed this way, it is likely he intends to finish what I started so he may take over my lands. The kit is getting the other two ready and will be back soon, you have a day, possibly two to rally your forces before that mutt gets here."

"Is there any other reason why the Gobi could be coming this way?"

"Not with the direction he's coming from." They both became quiet, but Kyuubi spoke after a moment. "Neither the kit nor I wish our fate on another of either of our species, but it may be the only way to stop Gobi. It would be wise to call the toad pervert if he is not already here."

"I can try, but I don't know if he'll return in time. For now let's return to my office and wait for Naruto to return."

Both used they method of transportation and appeared in her office to find Ino sitting in one of the chairs, Tobi looking out the window, and Naruto leaning back against the desk, his eyes on the floor. After noticing them, Naruto looked at Kyuubi. "Have you told her?" The kitsune nodded. "Good that makes things easier. You've probably already guessed, but this is Tobi, and I'd like to make it clear that he's not to be interrogated or harmed in any way."

Tsunade glared at the blonde. "And what makes you think you can order me around?"

Naruto glared back and she nearly flinched. "He saved my life, I'll gladly repay the favor, even if it means going against you and sensei." His glared quickly ended as his eyes shut in a large fox-like smile. "Besides, anything you'd like to know, he's already told us." Naruto's eyes scanned the room. "Kurama do you think it'd be possible to secure the room from sound escaping."

Kyuubi looked at bit shocked by the use of his cover name, but looked about the room, his kitsune ears picking up a light buzzing sound. "I think so, but it may take a couple of minutes."

"Do it please." Kyuubi moved about the room following his ears before stopping in front of the Nidaime's picture. Gently removing it from the wall, he found a small indent with a microphone and wireless transmitter. Tsunade's eyes went wide seeing it as he turned it off and placed it on the desk. With that finished, he took six blank pieces of paper from her desk and quickly brushed out the same seal on each before charging them with his yokai and threw them at the four walls, ceiling, and floor were they stuck and spread the yokai till the room was encased in a red glow. "It's set."

"Alright brat, what the hell is going on?! And how the hell did you know that thing…" She pointed at the microphone. "was in here?!"

"First, I didn't know that was in here, I only wanted him to put up seals. As for why they're up, I found out I'm not the only Jinchuuriki in Konoha."

Tsunade's mouth opened. "What? But how… when? Who is it, and which do they hold?"

With an unnoticeable look at Ino, he saw she was looking at the floor her body slightly shaking. "It doesn't matter, they don't hold one of the Bijuu, so they're safe from Akatsuki."

"Alright gaki, so how'd you find out?"

"Same way I found out about Gobi." Tsunade. "See, Kyuubi's got this security system thing that encompasses his entire territory, that goes off whenever a demon enters it, giving the direction its headed, the general area it entered, the type it is and the number of tails it has. Well, it told us that there was a Rokubi kitsune in the heart of his lands, which is Konoha, and the only demon he's let into his lands was his mate, also a Rokubi kitsune."

"And you think it's her because?"

"He attacked cause he thought some people from Konoha killed his pregnant mate, but what they probably did was sealed her inside of the other Jinchuuriki, and apparently one of them came back with them before Kyuubi killed the group. After that, well you know what happened. It's either that, or there's a Rokubi Kitsune in human form living here."

"So even after he killed them, he still attacked us, why."

Kyuubi growled. "They hadn't suffered enough, their families still lived while mine was taken from me, could you honestly say you would not have done the same?"

Tsunade glared at the demon. "I was in your place when Dan died, and while the thought did cross my mind, I didn't act on it, nor did I have the massive power you threw around in you're attack."

"I'm a demon, I'm not bound by your human morals."

"Kyuubi stop antagonizing her, or I put you back. Now, I know it's late, but you need to call a council meeting to inform them of Gobi's approach."

"And how do you suggest that I explain where I got the information, I can't very well say Kyuubi's alarm system told us!"

"Tell them that while on a mission, Ino and I saw him headed in the village's direct and that as a precaution we should start rallying forces and getting the civilians to secured places in case he keeps coming at us."

Tsunade blinked several times while looking straight at him. "That's actually not a half bad excuse, and it even mostly true."

Tobi turned around nodding. "The best lies are made from a bit of truth."

Tsunade turned from the masked man to Naruto. "You know that the council is going to hear this from one of you two right?"

"Yeah, I'll do it." Ino looked up at him in shock and he smiled back. "You should go home and get some rest Ino. Tobi, would you make sure she gets there safely, then you can head to my apartment if you like or see if you can get a hotel room." Ino sent a light glare at him. "It's not that I think you need an escort, but with the lack of sleep after exhausting yourself during training, I'd feel better if he went with you just incase."

She begrudgingly nodded. "I'll make sure she gets there, and I think I'll take your advice, but I'm getting a hotel room. If your clones in the armory are anything to go by, your apartment must be a mess." Tsunade, Ino, Tobi, and Kyuubi laughed as Naruto blushed lightly.

As the two left, Kyuubi turned to Naruto. "Well kit, I'm going to go back in and try to rest some more, have fun dealing with those annoying bastards."

"Sure." 'Leave the seals up through would you?'

Kyuubi's body went poof, but he spoke as he did. 'Plan to confront her about what the toad said?' Kyuubi never got an answer. **'Fine.'**

Tsunade moved around her desk with a sigh and sat down. "You know, in order for me to gather the council those seals are going to have to come down."

Naruto turned around to face her. "I asked Kyuubi to leave them up."

"Why?"

Naruto's eyes hardened. "So I could find out why I had to learn that the Yondaime was my Tou-san from a toad instead of you or sensei."

"Damn that Gamabunta, he knows Jiraiya wanted to tell you."

Naruto glares at her. "It wasn't him, and I don't give a damn if sensei wanted to tell me, he had plenty of opportunities, so did you, and Ojii-san, so tell me why I had to learn it from a stranger."

Tsunade looked at him strangely. "What do you mean a stranger, just who did you summon?"

"His name is Fukasaku, but he said everyone calls him Pa." He saw Tsunade's eyes widen. "I take it you've heard of him."

After a few seconds, he heard her chuckle. "Only you could summon a elder sage on accident. He was one of the ones that taught Jiraiya in the ways of being the Toad Sennin."

Naruto nodded. "It would seem it runs in the family cause he told me of another young blonde boy summoning him, and even something _very_ interesting about you." She couldn't explain why, but when he spoke those words, Tsunade's blood ran cold. "Want to hear about it?" She numbly nodded.

**Flashback:**

Naruto sat in a large forest clearing, several barrels of sake sitting beside him. 'Now just to summon Bunta. I better use a lot of chakra, just to make sure I get him, don't want to be here all day, the other's might get worried.'

**'Ha, you're just afraid of what Ino will do if you make her worry needlessly.'**

'What do you think Kiku will do to you if you don't help me get back soon?'

It was quiet for a moment before he felt some of Kyuubi's yokai flow into him. **'Well, what are you waiting for, summon the bastard toad already.'**

Naruto smirked as he quickly ran through the seals after biting his thumb hard enough for it to bleed. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Slamming his hand on to the ground, his vision was blocked by a large cloud of smoke, and when it cleared, instead of the massive toad he had been expecting, it was a small toad in a black cloak with white bushy eyebrows and goatee.

**'Hahahaha, even with my help you still managed to screw it up!'**

Naruto hung his head. **"What's the matter boy, not what you were expecting?"**

Naruto crouched down with a smile. "Not really, I was hoping to get Gamabunta, I'm suppose to share a drink with him."

The toad nodded sagely. **"I see, so my boy's still using that excuse to drink huh, well Ma will just have to straighten him out I guess. Oh right, my name is Fukasaku, but everyone just calls me Pa."**

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "No offense Pa, but I'd have thought you to be bigger, I mean since boss is so huge I figured the older toads got, the bigger they got."

He heard the old toad laugh. **"You remind me so much of both Jiraiya and Minato, though only Jiraiya asked me the same question. The truth is, not all of us grow to be Bunta's size, some like me and Ma remain small our whole live, but just because we're small doesn't mean we're weak. I, for instants, can beat Bunta, but we try not to fight amongst ourselves outside of training."** Pa got a fond smile on his face. **"You know, this reminds me of the first time I met Minato, he was trying to do the same thing as you were, when I first saw you standing there, for a moment I thought you were him."** A sad smile appeared on Naruto's face. **"What's the matter boy, why the long face?"**

"You're not the only one to think so, but I suppose I should at least be grateful you didn't calling me by his name."

**"I take it little Jiraiya has."** Naruto nodded. **"I see, I wouldn't take it personally, in fact I would consider it an honor to be compared to him, he was the Yondaime after all."**

"But I'm not." Naruto sighed as he sat down. "I just… it seems like I'm just a replacement for him to sensei."

**"I can assure you, you are more to little Jiraiya than a replacement, however, he was very close to Minato, and his lost effected him greatly, and training you like he once did your Tou-san, it is understandable he would think back on those days and get the past and present confused."**

"My Tou-san?" Pa started to sweat a bit with a nervous smile. "You're telling me that my Tou-san was the Yondaime and sensei never told me about it?!"

**"I don't know all the facts, but they thought it best you not be told till you were older."**

"They who?"

**"His sensei, Tsunade, and him, they didn't want you to be targeted by Minato's enemies."**

Naruto's eyes went wide as tears started building up. 'They all knew?'

**'Stupid, stupid, stupid, I just made it worse, why'd I have to go and run my mouth?' "Come on boy, cheer up, it's not like they intended to keep it hidden from you forever."**

Naruto managed to clam himself down, but he could bring himself to look the old toad in the eyes. "Could you tell me about him, my Tou-san I mean?"

**"To be honest, I didn't really know him that well, not nearly as well as Jiraiya did at any rate, but I can tell you that he was an orphan, just like you, except his parents didn't die, they gave him up. I remember one conversation I had with him in particular, it was when he was only a little younger than you…"**

**Another Flashback:**

Minato sat in front of Pa, a cup of tea in each of their hands. "I know it's her Pa, ever since Sandaime-sama brought them to the academy, I've felt this connection between us. Ibiki says it's just a crush, but I know it's not, sure I want her attention, but not for the same reason, and I also feel like I do when I'm with sensei, that I want her to be proud of me. Whenever she smiles at me, my spirits soar and I feel like I did something right, but the look of regret she tries to hide in her eyes, it scares me. What if she regrets what her and Tou-san did, or just having me? Could she possibly regret giving me up? What do I do if she does? I've always wished I had a mother, but what do I say, how do I act, would I be able to see her as my Kaa-san after she give me up? But if she regrets giving me up, why wouldn't she tell me who she is?"

**"Because you put on a strong front so others don't worry about you, you appear to be doing fine without her, she's probably afraid that by telling you, she'll ruin what happiness you have or that you'll reject her. I'm curious though, what does Jiraiya have to say about all of this?"**

Minato looked down at his cup. "I haven't told him, he'd probably just laugh at me."

**"You don't give him enough credit, while he may think it's a joke at first, he'll see that you're not kidding quickly so long as you do not back down on your opinion despite his laughter."**

"Maybe, but I don't want him to think I'm so childish that I still need my Kaa-san to wipe my nose."

**"Even so, he was once her teammate, even if she was able to hide it from others, few things got past each other."** Pa sighed before he finished his tea. **"Whether you speak to him or not is up to you, and I'll not say a word to him about it if you do not wish me too."**

Minato smiled. "Thanks Pa."

Pa smiled back. **"No problem my boy, and thank you for the tea, but I must be going or Ma will start to think I've got a girlfriend."** Minato laughed as the toad disappeared.

One Flashback End:

**"As far as I'm aware, he never spoke to either Jiraiya or Tsunade about his suspicions. That was one of the last times he summoned me, in fact he rarely summoned any of us except Bunta, and even then it was few and far between. Jiraiya would tell Ma and me about him whenever he got the chance to come to Myouboku Mountain, he even spoke of having him come to train with us in the Sennin Arts, but he never came, though whether it was his decision or because there were signs of another war, we never found out. Then after years of almost no summons from him, out of the blue he summons Bunta, who couldn't have been gone more than ten minutes, and when he returns, his eyes bleeding and he tells us Minato's died sealing the Kyuubi of all things."**

"What's the likely hood that he was right about her?"

The old toad shrugged. **"Who knows, it's not uncommon for a bond between a woman and her child be so strong that even without having seen each other for years, they would know each other at a glance. There are even some animals are born away from their parents but feel an instictive draw to them. All I know for sure is that their chakras were similar, but his personality was closer to Jiraiya, though that's understandable since by the time I met him, he had been under Jiraiya tutage for the better part of two years."**

Flashback End:

Tsunade's facal expression remained the same through out the entirity of his story, but Naruto could see masked pain in her eyes. "So Minato thought I was his mother, so what. Why bring it up?"

Naruto's eyes traveled to the picture of the Sandaime and he smiled fondly. "Did you know that until I was six, I called Ojii-san Hokage-sama like everyone else? It took him that long before I warmed up to him."

Tsunade looked to be getting angry. "Alright gaki, what the hell is up with you? First you bring up Minato, then you change the subject to sensei instead of answering my question."

Naruto's eyes locked with her and she saw a seriousness she hadn't since they had first met in that bar. "Why do you think I started calling you Baa-san right away when it took Ojii-san six years." The confusion on her face made it clear she didn't have even a guess. "It was because I felt a something similar to what Tou-san described to Pa. I had no idea why, but I felt I could trust you with anything, tell you anything, and you'd be there for me."

"So what? Because the two of you feel a certain way it makes it true?"

"If you prefer, there's an easy way to settle this." Naruto pulled out a scroll and unrolled it to show it was blank, before grabbing her ink brush and quickly drawing out a large seal with two small open circles and a large one in the center.

Tsunade looked it over as he replaced her brush. "What is it?"

"A seal Jiraiya felt I should know, even though I didn't take after him. It analyzes blood and determines whether the two who gave the samples, which are placed in opposite circles, are related, and depending on how closely, how they are."

Tsunade looked between him and the scroll before sighing. "There's no need for this gaki, I'll tell you. Minato was right, he was my sochi, and I did and still do regret giving him up, but with the threat of war looming over us and being so young, I wasn't able to take care of him the way I should have."

Naruto smiled and put his hand behind his head sheepishly. "I'm glad you told me, cause this thing doesn't actually work, I just threw some shit together." He got a thoughtful expression while Tsunade prepared to pound on him for tricking her. "I wonder what would happen if I added chakra to it." A fist impacted the top of his head and sent him crashing to the floor.

"I can't believe you lied to me you little brat! And as for this, you should know better than to fuck with something like this, you have no idea could happen!"

Naruto stood up a little worse for wear, but otherwise alright. "Sorry Kaa-san, I won't do it again."

"Damn it Naruto I told you to stop… wait what did you say?"

Naruto had a foxy smile on his face. "I said Kaa-san. Ino's helped me lower my mask, only her, Tobi, Ojii-san, and now you have seen completely behind it."

Tsunade looked hurt by his statement. "Why leave it up around Jiraiya and me, you said you trust me at the very least."

Naruto looked down sadly. "It wasn't a matter of trust. I just felt that both of you didn't really see me, that I was just a replacement, and I didn't want to be, so I used the nicknames I came up with for you and sensei to separate myself from them." Looking up at her, she saw some of his playfulness return, but still with the seriousness she had already seen. "So I take it you never told Jiraiya he had a son, since he's never said a word about it and I know he would have had he known."

Tsunade glared at him. "What makes you think he's the father?"

"Simple, Shizune's shown me a picture of Dan and if he was, Tou-san and I wouldn't have spiky hair, not to mention that Jiraiya has the same big smile has I do, and he once told me that before the war in which the three of you fought Hanzo the Salamander, that he got to experience heaven, if only for a single night, and as he usual speaks about you as if you were a goddess, I can only assume you and he…"

A blushing Tsunade cut him off. "Okay, that's enough." She sighed and got her blush under control. "You're right, alright. He's Minato's father, no I didn't tell him. I had planned to after the war was over, but he stayed in Ame no Kuni with these three kids, and when he got back he took on a team, Minato being one of his students. After that I couldn't tell him, the kid was with him almost 24/7, then Dan died and I completely forgot about Minato. I didn't remember till Jiraiya came looking for me at his request shortly after he became the Yondaime, to see if I'd be willing to come back. After that, I guess he didn't think I cared about him or the village, hell I didn't even know about the Kyuubi's attack till a month after when sensei sent a message to me. Jiraiya sought me out soon after and he told me the full story, including who your parents were. You wouldn't believe my surprise when he told me that Minato and Kushina named me as your godmother, said sensei wanted to know if either of us would came back to the village and take you in. I couldn't do it, and Jiraiya, could you imagine what you would have turned out like if he had, on top of that he had his spy network he had to maintain, so in the end the three of us decide it was best if you weren't told who your parents were till you could defend yourself against his enemies."

"I don't entirely agree with that, but I can understand why you did it, but as soon as this is over, both you and Jiraiya are telling me everything." 'Okay Kyuubi, you can let it down now.' He got no response, but the tags stopped glowing and fell to the floor. "Well, time to inform the council about Gobi."

Just as Tsunade's hand was about to touch the button under her desk that would summon Anbu, she stopped. "Naruto, just so you know beforehand, some of the council isn't going to be very happy with you because of what you did to the Uchiha."

"I kind of figured that."

"No, it's not what you're thinking, whatever you did to him in your battle left him without the ability to use chakra."


End file.
